Where there is despair, hope ...

Hope (or faith) is hard to find in the face of poverty, injustice, environmental deterioration, violence, poor health, and the lack of human decency that we feel in so many hearts. These things make the world a depressing place if there is not hope that they will not change. Occasionally they keep me up at night, keep me wondering where God is in these situations. The God I believe in is capable of presenting Godself in everyone and in everything. But it seems as if God doesn't. Instead God waits. God pursues us till we can no longer handle the pressure of this life without God. Our circumstances may never change, but our despair can be turned into hope.

Haven't you seen it all your life, really, if you stop and think about it? Many of us wait until something traumatic has entered into our lives before we truly acknowledge that we had hope and never knew we needed it, before we try to get into an intimate relationship with God.

The finding of God ... the acknowledgement that God IS ... that realization that God created us on purpose and with a purpose ... this is hope to me.

Maybe hope isn't really that hard to find. Maybe it really isn't as elusive as we might think. Perhaps we don't know what hope looks like. Hope may look like, even if in small glimpses:

* the many sounds of a mockingbird
* the face of a child sleeping
* relinquishment of our own desires
* food for someone who is hungry
* clothes for someone in need
* a human touch for someone with AIDS
* the infinite color of greens
* the wistful sway of a willow tree
* the sunrise ... day after day
* the laughter of a child
* the release after a cry
* the comfort of a hug
* the unexpected call from a friend
* silliness & surprise
* life in the midst of death
* music ... art ... beauty
* the feeling of "I think I can"
* the swell of emotion when in love
* the dance
* springtime after the dead of winter
* a brook that is constant in its flowing, but inconsistent in that its contents are always changing.
* a freedom found only when knowing that this life is not our own ... it is not to be held onto ... it is finite and infinite ... it is not without purpose.

Hope does (or can) spring eternal.