A “Good News” Day

As principal, I have many opportunities to talk with students, staff, and parents on any given day. It is actually one of my favourite parts of the job. Sometimes it amazes me how comments made in separate conversations about different aspects of LCES life actually sound remarkably alike.  

Here is a set of three comments shared with me in the last week:

“It doesn’t matter what happens, I’m going to have a good day!”

“It is going to work out perfectly. I just know it. It’s not even a question in my mind.”

“I’m glad I get to come to my school today. We're doing awesome stuff.”

While I suppose one could state that we have an overabundance of excessively optimistic people, I would propose that this is evidence of people in our community deliberately deciding to have a “good news” day. I was introduced to this term years ago by an author who reminds readers that the word “gospel” comes from the Greek for “good news. The gospel does not promise a worry-free life. Instead, it urges a stance toward life that sees patterns of faithfulness before needs, opportunities before problems, and hope over despair.

Put another way, “…a good news day is a day when the gospel shapes my beliefs, my hopes, my plans, my actions, my interactions, and how I deal with sins and failures” (both my own sins and those of others that impact me.”

What does it mean for our school to have a “good news day?” I would suggest that it means that our problems and challenges do not define us, God’s love does. It means that we live out the gospel of good news each day, not leaving room for doubt that God is, and will be, faithful.

Have a “good news” week!

SJ