"2016: A Good Year"
The Pope kicked off 2016 making a speech at the Vatican asking journalists to cover more good news.
"Good things don’t make the news. These tokens of love cannot and should not be obscured by the arrogance of evil," stated Pope Francis, "Good always wins, even if sometimes it might seem weaker and hidden."
This speech gives a revolutionary thought about New Year's resolutions. For years, just like journalism, we have spotlighted the bad things. The mistakes we’ve made. The flaws we have. The bad habits we’ve formed. We lump all these imperfections together and resolve with the start of each new year to make them more perfect.
What if, instead, we decided to shine a light on the good in this upcoming year? What would happen if we took our focus off our weaknesses long enough to make our strengths stronger? What if we stopped thinking about what we’re missing out on and decided to really live life?
If we intentionally seek it, dig for it, we may actually discover the “weaker and hidden” good Pope Francis was talking about. Because even in the worst circumstances, good is always underneath it all.
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:2.)” While there will always flaws with this world and each of us who live in it, we get to choose what overcomes us. We get to write the headlines of our own year. Imagine we take Pope Francis’ advice and label this one right now:
“2016: A Good Year."
Kaley Thompson is the chief storyteller at People of the Second Chance. She lives in Charlotte, NC and wears a sparkly motorcycle helmet.