Jim Wallis editor of Sojourners writes … “Hope is not feeling. It is a decision — a choice you make based on what we call faith or moral conscience, whatever most deeply motivates you. Life tests the hopefulness in our hearts.
The seasons we have and are travelling through have not been a time that many of us are feeling a great deal of hope. In fact, many events, especially pestilence flood and war feel like they have sucked the hope right out of us.
And yet, even in the midst of terrible events and stories, the possibilities of hope still exist depending on what we decide to do for reasons of faith and conscience. In fact, people of faith and conscience are already making a difference in the most difficult situations and places.
And that gives me hope. The God of hope literally came into the world in order to change it.
An excerpt from a poem by Garrison Keillor says,
A little faith will see you through.
What else will except faith is such a cynical time
When the country goes temporarily to the dogs … one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people
Lacking any other purpose in life
It would be good enough to live for their sake.
I know many in those “campfires” who are bringing hope to what seems to be hopeless situations. So our task is to keep the campfires burning.
We don’t ever know when something will change, we really can’t control that. But we do know who the change agent is. If we are Christians, we believe that God’s timing often surprises our own — God might work through us in unexpected ways. So, keep the campfires burning and believe that the world will be changed. The world’s events are clearly outside of our control, but our belief is that things can and will change.