Thought for the week

FAKE News. Oh dear, this is a term that has become very familiar to us recently.

Sharing false news and misinformation is something we have certainly been hearing reported more and more about.

Firstly it is clear that the terrible atrocities that we hear reported from the war in Ukraine are not being reported correctly in Russia.

Then there is all the false and misleading information spread online, whether about health (Covid 19 and vaccinations), politics, or climate change – the topics are endless.

The fact is that there are people who purposely set out to deceive others for their own gain of power, money, or prestige.

It leaves us wondering: how do we trust the source of a message or news?

People of faith, though, do have one thing they can trust and always turn to.

Many of the scriptures of the world’s religions talk about God as a being we can trust completely – he is, in the words of the old hymn, our ‘Rock of ages.’ As the book of Proverbs puts it: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart… in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.”

In other words God is like the foundations of a house or the roots of a tree, being our strength when we feel weak and lifting us when we feel sad.

We can trust him to be there for us, whatever we are facing and however difficult life gets.

This is certainly not fake news, but, as the original Greek translation of the word “gospel” reminds us, this is ‘GOOD NEWS’!