What is it about good news that we just can’t wait to share it? You know what I mean, if we find out about a great new restaurant or we watch a cool movie or learn about some unusual bargain. We just can’t wait to share it with someone, especially those that we care about. But it actually goes further than this, for example if someone that we don’t even know achieves some great feet or is involved in something that’s extraordinary we can’t wait to share that as well. What is this about? Does it give us the sense of giving a gift or cheering up someone or perhaps making us in some way feel important? After all no one’s urging us on or offering us pay and yet we are so spontaneously and authentically energized to share our good news that we go looking for people to share it with. Perhaps this is a manifestation of our core desire to bless people or give them something of value ? Whatever it is it’s an experience common to all of us.

But this brings up the question, will what we consider to be good news be good news to those we share it with? Certainly most of us would agree that as humans we have different tastes and values and pursuits so on one hand we are not surprised if our good news is not as good of news to someone else. So we don’t fear if people are not as enthused about our good news as we are, much less fearful that their opinions of us might diminish because of what we consider to be good news. But this assumption is not necessarily all the time. As an example your good news might be that your favorite team won the World Series or the Super Bowl but if those you are sharing with experience that their favorite team lost in the very same contest your good news would not be met with much enthusiasm. Should we take this same idea into the realm of politics for an example we know that what is good news for one person may be the very worst news for someone else and a potential cause of a significant change in someone’s feelings about us.

So what do we do when we are convinced that we have good news that needs to be shared with everyone and yet we have a strong reason to believe that some might not consider our news good or that they might even find it offensive?

Do we share such news or do we intentionally stay silent? Do we share it only with those that we are absolutely certain will consider it good news or do we take the risk of sharing it with some that we are not sure of? Do we share it openly and boldly or carefully and tactfully? What do we do when our enthusiastic desire is to share our good news but we find ourselves colliding with an equally dynamic fear that both we as well as our good news will not be thought of well?

Could there be a moral obligation to share good news even though we may fear that it will be rejected by some? How would we go about determining when we are morally obligated to share good news though it has potential to be controversial? What criteria would we look to for an answer? Might it be that the potential impact for good would determine our sharing the good news with someone even though we recognize they may find it uncomfortable or even offensive? As an example what if we knew about a highly successful surgical procedure that could save someone’s life but we knew that the person in need of the procedure does not want to even hear a word about the seriousness of their condition. Do we remain silent for fear of upsetting them or do we share the good news in the hope that there life might be saved ? Perhaps we need to inquire about some other questions in order to answer these questions.

Might the key to sharing good news be how we share the good news and when we share it ? Might there be some ways more comfortable and effective to share good news that would lessen the likelihood of it being offensive and rejected? Might the problem really be that sometimes we share good news in unwise ways that that cause it not to be good news for the hearer? What if there were ways to share the good news so that even if one rejected it they would still know that our motives were good? I mean there’s never a guarantee that daring to share in opinion even on something that we consider good news might not ruin a relationship but might there be a sincere and sensitive matter that would lessen such an outcome?

What if we shared our good news in the context of friendship and hospitality? Or what if we shared our good news in the process of answering questions that someone is asking of us. Maybe if we kept our sharing of good news short sweet and simple? Perhaps if we had solid substantive reasons behind the good news that we were sharing? Might we be wise to be more selective and share good news with people that we see and know our teachable types? Lastly what if we shared our good news in the context of our personal story and experience people love story might that not make our good news more palatable and desirable?