Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. ~Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies
There are a lot of situations in life where we don’t always know what to do. Sometimes the problems that we encounter can seem insurmountable so that we almost feel paralyzed about what to do and how to help. When I provided grief education to the community while working for hospice, one of the most frequent questions that I would get is what to say to people after a death. Most of us struggle to find words to comfort and we lean on platitudes that are ultimately not helpful or feel inadequate. When faced with challenges, we often don’t know what to do or what to say. So what do we do when hardship arises? When faced with a problem, what is our best response?
One of the things that I value so much about the Jesus story is the model that he gives us through his life. Most scholars agree that Jesus’ ministry only last about 3 years at the most and yet if you read all the stories, parables, lessons, table flipping, meals, and feedings we see a life of Jesus that was all about showing up. From weddings to seas to roadsides, Jesus was relentless about showing up and trying to do the right thing. He never stopped trying to seek hope and possibility in every person and every situation.
As we are often faced with different problems, whether those of our own, our families, our communities, and even our nation, what we can’t afford to do is to throw up our hands and cease to try but rather to dig in deep and show up. We must put our energy into trying to solve the problems and to not be intimated by the magnanimity of the problem. Hope is the one thing that we can always have because God always has hope in us.
Prayer
God of Hope, through all the struggles and problems of this world, we can often feel overwhelmed and daunted by the things that we face both individually and collectively. Help us to find hope even where things seem hopeless. Amen.