I often ponder; where do I start?

That’s how I start most days, setting priorities. My reflex response when asked “how am I today?” or “what’s new?” You know, greetings people exchange with one another. My response is generally, “Another day of opportunity!” I’ve been saying that for decades.

Why is that? Is it honest, or is it boastful some may think?  Should I care?

Each day is another opportunity. God allowed me another day of rest and another day to begin again. I feel accountable. This is how I approach life and 2024.

We start off life learning how to walk and learning how to talk, how to count, how to read, and we progress to do more and better each day. That’s life. We are measured. How much did we grow? How much did we learn? It’s exciting, and we feel accomplishment. Children get excited when we talk of their daily accomplishments. We enter formalized school and again we are measured by our age. We get report cards; we then learn excitement or something new: fear.

Life should be exciting, filled with opportunities and challenges. 

We can embrace or reject. Early learned reflexes of excitement and accomplishment are opportunities accepted, and fears generally reject opportunity as too risky and unrewarding.  Why? Being judged? 

The Church can be like that. Do people grow in faith or stay away out of fear of commitment or is it rejection? 

I submit people flourish by being challenged to be better, to do more and to feel the joy of accomplishment. Young children who learn to give up or to be content to say “I can’t do that” sometimes lack the encouragement to just make progress.

The Good News has Media platforms: The Monthly printed edition has 710 locations, providing stacks of free copies; about half of the locations are within churches with approximately 80,000 monthly readers. The Good News Social media platforms: The Good News digital edition at GoodNewsFl.org with the entire monthly copy is available free on-line to approximately Thirty to Fifty-Thousand readers monthly who access us on-line. The Good News weekly newsletter is sent out to more than 11,000 “requested” subscribers via email. It features upcoming events, presents a selection of articles from the print edition, and adds additional news events that may have missed deadline or features that did not make the print edition due to lack of space. The Good News Facebook Page shares multiple daily posts to over 17,700 Good News followers, and growing daily. The Good News connects to over 1470 business followers on LinkedIn  and 3,370 followers on Instagram.

We endeavor to do more and do it better, each day.

Why do I mention this? In review and analysis of 2023, we looked at the analytics of the Good News social media instant responses. On July 19, 2023, we posted one of our daily posts, which generally features something mildly thought provoking or words of encouragement such as “Bible scripture” or similar passages. The post pictured here in blue and white (our logo brand colors) went viral with over 8,500 people who reshared it to their friends list and a whopping 621,331 people engaged in some manner, so said the detailed analytics; and it was our top 2023 engagement. 

For the record, I will mention we had over 255 daily posts and 17 had over 45,000 people reached with a few in the 100,000 range.

What is the actual significance? read the words in the post, please.

This is what the Good News “followers” resonated with: The Church. 

Do More and Better

We can do more. We can be more inclusive. We can be more encouraging. We can provide more opportunities for engagement. 

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every Opportunity” (Colossians 4:5 NIV).

Let’s get started with 2024. I’m excited for the opportunity that lies ahead.

-Les