10,000 Reasons: A Compilation of Good News in 2023 (Psalm 103:1-5)

“For all Your goodness, I will keep on singing. Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.” – Matt Redman 🗞️

Dear blessed beneficiary,

The year is coming to an end. It’s time we follow the trend, wherein people look back to the year’s blessings and look forward to new beginnings.

Before we face the new year, let’s look back and praise and thank God for the good things He has done for the world this year. This is a joint late Thanksgiving and early New Year's Eve celebration post.

The Bible reading for this entry is the beginning of Psalm 103 where it tells us not to forget the benefits we get from the Lord.

Psalm 103:1-5 (NKJV)

Bless the Lord, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

² Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits:

³ Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases,

⁴ Who redeems your life from destruction,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

⁵ Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

I’m an online English tutor on the website, Engoo, and it publishes news every day. Like any news site, their news page has articles categorized. I will be sharing 2 good news each from their 6 topical categories.

Science & Technology

In this field, I found that the best news are those wherein new technology has been used to help people with disabilities.

Because of a new bionic arm, Tonney, who lost his left arm, “can now use the hand to hold objects, pour a glass of water, and even use a screwdriver.” Before bionic arms only worked on arms amputated below the elbow, but praise God for the Swedish research team who worked on this successful new bionic arm. (Click this link to read the article.)

Because of a new brain signal translation system, Ann, who lost her speaking ability over 18 years ago, can now speak through an AI avatar. Before, she was using a device that makes her type 14 words a minute, but now, praise God for the Californian scientists who made a system that lets her virtually speak and have facial expressions at a speed of 80 words per minute. (Click this link to read the article.)

Culture & Entertainment

In this category, the news I chose are about movies.

For me, there are two movies of the year: Barbie and The Hunger Games prequel. But of course, Barbie trumps a prequel that romanticizes a villain. Engoo didn’t write an article about The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and I haven’t seen the movie yet because I’m waiting to watch it for free as part of the perks of having a PWD ID. The news page featured 4 films this year: Barbie, Oppenheimer, The Little Mermaid, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. (Click the movie titles to read their articles.)

I can only talk about the movies I’ve watched, which are Barbie and The Little Mermaid. Barbie presents the much-needed equality between male and female, which is a very important topic. The movie's the most anticipated in pop culture this year in my opinion. The Little Mermaid, on the other hand, shows inclusivity by having an African-American as Ariel. In the original story by Hans Christian Andersen, Ariel was not named. She was just called the youngest among the six daughters of the sea king. She was described as the most beautiful of them all and her eyes were blue. With that description, people would imagine her as white. But since the movie is an adaption of the Disney animation, then having a black girl with red hair is still suitable as Ariel. Plus Halle has an awesome singing voice.

Economy & Business

For these topics, I chose news related to eco-friendly products.

“Diamond industry experts said global sales of jewelry using lab-made diamonds increased from less than $1 billion in 2018 to about $6 billion in 2021.” Mining diamonds causes damage to God’s natural creation. The company Skydiamond takes small amounts of carbon from the air to make lab-made diamonds. (Click this link to read the article.)

Indian company Code Effort recycles old cigarette butts into paper, pillows and even soft toys. “According to the World Health Organization, around 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year and tobacco products are the most littered items globally.” It’s really inspiring to hear people turning trash into useful items. (Click this link to read the article.)

Health

Health is truly wealth, a blessing like money that allows us to do things.

For me, the best health news this year is the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 as no longer a global emergency. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “the pandemic has been on a downward trend.” (Click the previous sentence to read the official remarks.) (And click here to read the Engoo article.)

The best news in the field of medicine is about the first Alzheimer's drug developed by Japanese and US pharmaceutical companies. Leqembi is for patients with mild dementia and other symptoms in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, and the first medicine that can slow their cognitive decline. (Click this link to read the article.)

Travel & Lifestyle

For this category, what I chose are news that showcases artistic talents God has given to humanity.

Japan’s Tottori's Sand Museum annually exhibits a series of sand sculptures showing scenes from different countries and regions of the world. Sculptors from all over the world come to contribute. It’s amazing to see the pictures, so how much more if you see them in person? This year, the exhibition was on the pyramids and monuments of ancient Egypt. (Click this link to read the article.)

With Greece famous for its mythology of gods and goddesses, I was hesitant to choose the article about it, but the country is still part of God’s creation and their creativity comes from God. Plus, the New Testament was written in Greek. Anyway, the news is that there’s an app called Chronos, which enables a smartphone to view ancient Greek sites with a digital image showing how they originally looked like. (Click this link to read the article.)

Language & Education

This is a category that is not seen in most news sites, but since Engoo is all about educating the English language to people, then this is definitely worth reading and discussing about.

A piece of good news for learning a language is that AI can help learners without being anxious to be taught by a human. This is really beneficial to shy students. But of course, putting AI replacing human teachers aside, I believe once a student becomes confident while learning with a robot, it’s still more effective to learn from a human because communication doesn’t just involve words but it involves the heart as well. (Click this link to read the article.)

The last news is about esports boosting diversity in STEM careers. Chicago’s DePaul University offered a new esports scholarship, and 9 of 10 are students of color. “A 2015 Pew Research Center study found Black teens are slightly more likely to play video games.” (Click this link to read the article.)

There you have it. Twelve good news for the past almost twelve months we’ve had.

Thank You, Lord, for 2023. Thank You for blessing the world around me. Thank You for the goodness in humanity.

With love,

Celina <3