In 2025, bad news hit from all directions. It wasn’t just a slow trickle; it was a deluge.
The federal government shutdown left 1.4 million workers without paychecks, creating immediate, kitchen-table hardship for families nationwide who suddenly couldn’t cover rent or groceries.
A Pew survey found that 85% of Americans believed politically motivated violence was rising, feeding a low-grade national apprehension that followed us into grocery stores and public parks.
That fear became reality with shocking assassinations that felt like holdovers from a darker era: a conservative activist was shot dead in September, and a UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing remained a major, unresolved wound in the national psyche through 2025. What made both deaths more disturbing wasn’t just the violence itself, but the visible segment of the public celebrating online—forgetting that these men were husbands and fathers with grieving families left behind.
Beyond our borders, the picture was just as grim. Major earthquakes and catastrophic flooding struck around the world, dominating our screens with images of ruin and disrupting lives on a massive scale.
Meanwhile, right here at home, housing solidified into a slow-motion crisis. Median home prices hit $375,000, with only 25% of American households able to afford a median-priced home—down from over 70% just 12 years ago. The American Dream of ownership didn’t just drift away; for three-quarters of the country, it vanished.
Quick—can you think of the top three good news stories of the last year?
No? Well, neither can I.
Truthfully, the news has gotten to be so saturated with suffering and venomous infighting that I tend to approach it like a child watching a very scary movie—eyes covered, hands pressed tight against my face, only taking little peeks between my fingers, dreading the next moment the monster will appear.
Maybe I’m not alone in this. We are a tired nation. About 20% of American adults are thought to be on anti-anxiety or anti-depression prescriptions. We are medicating ourselves against the reality of our own timeline.
When you look at the world around you through the unrelenting lens of major media and social networking—where every algorithm is tuned to outrage—it is very easy to feel discouraged, and sometimes even despondent, over the shape of the world.
But here is the hard truth: the worst news is never reported in the major media.
The worst news isn’t about interest rates, or political violence, or even natural disasters.
The worst news is that we are all sinners to the God who made us. The Bible is clear: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
This matters because the penalty for sin—what we have actually earned with our lives—is death, and not just a physical death. It is a spiritual separation that would justly exile us from God for eternity.
There is no government bailout for this. There is no way we can buy ourselves out of that destiny. No way we can “good-work” ourselves out of it, either.
But here’s where the good news comes in—the news that breaks the cycle. God says the free gift of God is eternal life through His Son, Jesus.
This gift of eternal life is so costly that all the world’s wealth combined could not buy a single second of it. The only payment sufficient to cover that infinite debt was the substitutionary death of God’s own Son on the cross. He made the payment.
Now, we have to be careful with the word “gift.” We live in a world of marketing tricks. It’s not like those “gifts” that are free in name only.
For example, AT&T is currently offering a “free” iPhone 17—but read the fine print. You only get it if you trade in a recent premium phone in perfect condition, sign a 36-month contract, and agree to spend up to $65 a month for a specific unlimited plan. You are committed to spend at least $2800 to get that “free” phone.
In a situation like that, the supposed good news of a free phone turns out to be very bad, very expensive news. It’s a debt disguised as a gift.
That’s not the way God operates. There is no fine print in grace.
All God asks is that you accept His offer in faith—in other words, that you believe God. You don’t trade in your “good behavior” to get it. You don’t sign a contract promising to be perfect for the next 36 months.
As Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds us: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
But what about all this bad news still in the world? It’s still there. I can’t promise you 2026 will be easier. The government will likely shut down again. Someone else will commit a shocking crime. The cost of living will keep squeezing families.
But listen to what Paul wrote in Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
That doesn’t mean the suffering wasn’t real. It means it isn’t wasted.
It means that while the headlines are screaming chaos, God is whispering purpose. He is working, even now, in the middle of the mess, to bring good out of chaos for those who know Him.
So this year, let the bad news stay in the headlines, but not in your heart. For the first time, you can celebrate Christmas as the birth of your Savior Christ—and not just a time for Rudolph, Frosty, and Grandma getting run over by a reindeer.
You can celebrate the only news that truly matters: the news that you are loved, you are saved, and you are never alone.
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:8-14)
And that’s what I know today.