You and I both know the news is heavily sensationalized in order to sell. The competition to get the most readers quite often outweighs deserving recognition of “feel good news”. Feel good stories get shuffled back in the paper to Section D, page 12, below the fold.

I read a story yesterday. You may have seen something in late summer about a young woman who ran out of gas on an interstate off ramp. She reported a homeless man offered her his last $20 to buy gas. She was so taken by his selfless generosity, she and her boyfriend started a Go Fund Me page to reward this man and help him get off the streets. In this day and age, with so much bad news coming at you in every direction, we all wanted to celebrate this kind man’s honest gesture. 

Money flooded in and soon the Go Fund Me account had over $140,000 in it. It wasn’t long till things started taking a twist. The man who was supposed to be the recipient of this windfall sued the young couple and said they were holding onto the money for themselves and he wasn’t getting what he deserved. After a thorough investigation, the whole thing unraveled as a scheme cooked up by three people who knew each other for several months after meeting in Las Vegas. They are all charged with fraud and theft and I don’t know what all. It’s a sad thing to see thieves take advantage of well meaning folks with such a ruse. It harms legitimate attempts to help deserving people who are down on their luck.

When I am overwhelmed by the badness of bad news, I go looking for GOOD news. Stories that uplift, reward, honor people who make a difference. People who are often the unsung heroes. The humble and kind folk who don’t draw attention to themselves. I found one such story in Richard “Tre” Jenkins. This young man spend the majority of his childhood moving from one homeless shelter to another. Somewhere around the sixth grade, he realized…unless he wanted history to repeat itself, he wanted his future offspring to have a better childhood. He was already smart, but he kicked it into overdrive and started working hard at school. He enrolled in after school programs that helped him improve his writing and then applied for a scholarship to a college prep high school for children of poor, single-parents. He received that scholarship then applied to, and was accepted by…Harvard University on a full ride scholarship. 

His uncle did set up a Go Fund Me page to help him with expenses that are not covered by his scholarship such as books, a laptop, and other essentials. Hard work should be rewarded and acknowledged. 

For every bad news story…look for the good news stories that blow them out of the water. Don’t believe there is no good in humanity. Don’t buy that. Often the bad news stories that are being put out there are being done so on purpose…to provide a smokescreen. To divert our attention from something else going on that maybe someone doesn’t want you to know about. Paranoid? I don’t think so. Every time I hear something absolutely outrageous, there’s usually someone behind the screen, pulling the strings. Sort of like the Great and Powerful Oz…just a pathetic old man yelling into a microphone from behind a curtain….hoping you won’t see how small he really is. ❤️

“They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.”  Psalm 112:7 NIV