Given the good news/bad news query, I will go for bad news first every time.
I think subconsciously I am hoping the good news will trump the bad.
Or at least put the bad into perspective.
When the news is good enough, bad news seems more manageable somehow.
The bad is still there, and whatever it is still must be faced, but it seems that knowing the good allows the bad to take its proper place as something that is temporary; something to be overcome (if possible) and put behind and then, hopefully, mostly forgotten.
I wonder if, after this life is over, we might not just look back and think that the Good News we are now in the presence of, completely overpowers any of the ‘bad news’ we faced here.
Will we recognize the magnificence of the gift we have been offered and think that any temporary hardship was paltry in comparison?
If we consider the enormity of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ (which is THE good news), that in spite of our weakness and sin; our wandering and poor choices; our forgetfulness and disloyalty, He still offers us a way to receive all that the Father has and is, how could anything be bad enough to diminish our joy?
Linda Reeves beautifully put it like this: ‘I do not know why we have the many trials that we have, but it is my personal feeling that the reward is so great, so eternal and everlasting, so joyful and beyond our understanding that in that day of reward, we may feel to say to our merciful, loving Father, “Was that all that was required?”’ (Worthy of Our Promised Blessings, Gen Conf, Oct. 2015)
In the light of the overwhelming goodness of our Father and our Savior, in the brightness of the realization of all that will be ours, I don’t believe we will look back at any mortal trial, no matter how bad, and think the cost was too high.
I picture me thinking of all the ‘bad’ I faced in life and wondering in awe at the glorious good news that makes all of it fade into nothing at all.
If I really believe that, I can actually live in that way here and now.
Reminding myself of the stunning good news that swallows up any bad I might be asked to endure for a time, I will live encompassed by the joy and peace of the knowledge that no bad news, ever, will rob me of the sublime assurance that is in Jesus Christ.
Awaiting us is glory, light, truth, power, love and knowledge beyond comprehension.
But it is also with us here.
Right now.
The best news.
