What's The Good Word

“Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.” (Pr 12:25 AV)

 

I cannot remember where it was that the following occurred, but one of the several cultures in which I lived would greet one another with the question, “So, what’s the good word?”  I want to say it was my native northeast, but I cannot be sure.  The meaning is simple.  We greeted one another with positive words rather than complaints or bad news.  So, what’s the good word?  Family news, news regarding one’s life, or blessings of life usually followed.  We figured negative news was going to come anyway, so we might as well start out with the positive.  The above verse is quite descriptive.  Heaviness is anxiety.  To stoop means to be depressed.  Anxiety causes depression.  Fear causes sadness.  Lack of hope causes the heart to spiral into a deep chasm from which it is difficult to escape.  The cure is a good word.  The meaning of the word ‘good’ varies slightly.  The one that fits the context best is ‘better’.  And, the word for ‘glad’ means to rejoice.  In other words, the soul is cast down into depression because of fear and anxiety.  To rescue the heart from its stooper it needs something better than it has.  It does not need worse.  It needs better.

One of the most enjoyable ministries I had was as a hospital chaplain.  I never had to be the one who delivered only bad news.  Sometimes I was asked to.  Most of the time it was the doctor who delivered such news.  My ministry was to temper the bad news with good news.  No matter how bad it was, my ministry was to find the good in it.  Because there always is some good in it.  Always!  The LORD does not allow negative without the possibility of positive.  Excluding eternal hell, of course.  I don’t remember many of my visits, but there are a few that stand out.  One such case was a patient who was terminal with emphysema.  This patient had an estranged only child.  During my rounds, I was asked to visit with the patient because she had no other living relative that would come and see her.  We spent the better half of an hour talking.  We talked about her family.  We talked of her child and grandchild from whom she was estranged.  The longer we talked, the less resistant she was to reestablish a relationship with her child.  By the end of the hour, she picked up the phone and called her child.  I excused myself from that conversation so my patient could have her privacy, so I didn’t get the outcome.  That is, until the next time I was called in to make rounds.  The nursing staff told me her child came to see her just before she passed.  It took a fatal diagnosis to reconcile these two people.  The good word was that if two people will humble themselves, a relationship can be restored even in the midst of severe circumstances.

Let’s face it.  We live in a world designed to get us uptight.  We live in a world of bad news.  We live in a world that is uncertain and that, by design, robs the heart of hope.  We turn on the news only to see the ray of hope we had has been robbed once again.  Count on this.  When our current crisis is solved, there will arise another.  If it is not pestilence, it will be war.  If it is not war, it will be poverty.  If it is not poverty, it will be civil unrest.  The bad news comes in waves and it will always be a part of life.  But, so too are the blessings of life!  There are good words that can be spoken.  The sky is not always falling.  There is a rainbow after a storm.  There are opportunities after failures.  There is tomorrow.  2020 will come to an end and 2021 will bring good days as well as bad days.  There are good words that can be spoken.  How dare we pile on top of others who are anxious with more anxiety.  It is almost like we want to dig their pit a little deeper.  Their heart is already stooped low enough.  Why not share a good word?  What is the good word?  If you don’t have one, then find one!  Stop this nonsense of surrendering to the spirit of the world by being downcast, hopeless, and negative.  Praise the LORD He is still on the throne and in complete and total control.  Personally, if you have a bad word, keep it to yourself.  I can find enough of those words all on my own.  Give me a good word.  Because like you, I could use all the good words I can get.