“The Spirit Is Moving with Good News” Song Video
There’s plenty of bad news these days. We can easily list all the bad things happening in our world, and I don’t deny them. But focusing on them gives them greater power.
What about the good news? I invite you to focus on the good things happening in the world.
Nicholas Kristof, New York Times journalist, writes that “human beings have a cognitive bias toward bad news,” so journalists pounce on crises in the world and “don’t do enough to lluminate the backdrop of gains made in health, education, and well-being.“ Kristof states that “humanity’s great triumph over the last half-century — huge reductions in poverty, disease and early death — goes largely unacknowledged. . . . In Sierra Leone, a country that remains heartbreakingly poor, the risk of a child dying is less than half what it was 20 years ago.”
Carole Kneeland, my son Chad’s friend and former vice president for news at KVUE-TV in Austin, Texas, was one of the first television news directors who declined to broadcast crime stories just because they were sensational and would hook viewers. She aired crime stories only when there was an immediate threat to public safety and viewers needed to take some kind of action. She emphasized positive stories that uplift the human spirit and encourage responsibility.
The Spirit is still moving around the world with good news. She brings healing, takes down walls, proclaims freedom, and sets the oppressed free (Luke 4:18-19). We can join Her work of bringing good news of peace, justice, and freedom.
The Spirit is moving with good news for all,
to bring us Her healing and take down each wall.
We join with the Spirit to free those oppressed,
to bring peace and justice so all will be blessed.
Words © 2019 Jann Aldredge-Clanton Music © 2019 Katie Ketchum
Video Credits
Performed by: Katie Ketchum
Music: Katie Ketchum
Lyrics: Jann Aldredge-Clanton
From: Hersay: Songs for Healing and Empowerment
Visual Art:
Katie Ketchum: Hersay book cover painting
Lucy Synk: “Ruah” painting
Deborah Swanson Hall: “Ruah, Breath of Life” quilt artwork
logo from DFW Divine Feminine events
photo from The Gathering, A Womanist Church
Linda Palmstrom: “Ruah” painting
photo from Equity for Women in the Church Conference
David Clanton: “Divine Feminine Dancing” artwork
photo from Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
photo from Nevertheless, She Preached