A weekly reflection from a member of the Hastings clergy

This week’s article by Pastor Paris Pasch of The Journey Church in Hastings

I’ve been a local Pastor in Hastings for nearly 40 years. One of the great joys I and my colleagues in the other Hastings churches have, is the assignment to share good news with people every Sunday and often other times throughout the week. We are aware that much of what makes the news feed or social media in our present culture is not good, or joyous, or unifying. So every Sunday we get to swim upstream in the waters of communication. So, let me expand a bit and share with you readers some steps you might take to enjoying some good news.

First, it might help if we shifted to becoming people who look for something peaceable, hope filled and encouraging. My Bible tells me that if I seek for something, I will more likely find it. We can choose to become eager for good news and not merely a recipient of whatever comes down the line.

Second, we might choose to plant small seeds that have the potential to germinate into healthy good news plants. A kind word, a positive viewpoint or a hope filled perspective. This is not easy when you turn on the TV and see the dark side of humanity as the feature story in the news, however we can make our own local stories be known and heard. My Bible again tells me to speak peaceable, loving, caring and kind words in order to eventually reap such results.

Thirdly we might strengthen our bad news boundaries. By this I mean we can choose to forego the criticism of others, the fault finding and the judgements that seem to be so easy to hear today from people who have become so jaded by humanity and so angry if they don’t get their way in society. Here's a great Bible verse.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

My hope for you is that you see the benefit in these words and choose to apply them in your real life so that you too might produce low hanging fruit of good news that others might enjoy as they interact with you on this planet. Thanks so much for reading.