In Alaska, where I live, Christmas comes just days after winter solstice. It’s the darkest day of the year.

Alaskans are clued into solstices, winter and summer. Our lives are impacted by them. They are dramatically distinct, light vs darkness.

We like light. A lot. Many people put lights up on their houses. Businesses do the same. I know this happens all over. But in a place this dark and cold, light means something more.

The Christmas story is about light in darkness: A star led the magi from their country to Bethlehem. Angels appeared, radiant, in the night sky to announce the birth of Jesus to shepherds.

The Epistle of John introduces Jesus as actually being the light: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

But for every string of lights, there’s a scroll of headlines.

Where my grandparents lived, a news station tried to “only tell good news.” I loved the idea. But they couldn’t stay in business. I recently heard about a newspaper that tried to do the same thing. It also went out of business.

It seems that bad news sells.

As a result, we are inundated with bad news. Swamped. Overwhelmed.

It can be easy to think that bad news is all there is.

But it isn’t.

There is plenty of light. There always has been. We just have to look at it.

And as leaders—we’re called to contribute to it.

Merry Christmas,

Christian