From Jurgen Moltmann
All despair presupposes hope. The pain of despair lies in the fact that hope exists, but that there appears to be no way for the hope to be fulfilled. Where hope for life is frustrated in every respect, the hope turns against the hoper and eats into him/her. 'I looked for work everywhere and was always turned down. Then I got to the point when nothing more mattered,' said a young burglar in Berlin. When there is no longer any prospect of meaningful life, people turn to meaningless violence: 'Destroy whatever you can destroy.' When hope dies, the killing begins. Hopelessness and brutality are just two sides of the same sad coin.
The brutality that comes with hopelessness can be directed outward or at one's self. When dreams are shattered we are very vulnerable to the powers that try to convince us that the only way to exist is to take control of life. Unfortunately, when we despair, the way to take control of life is often to damage our own life...even to the point of death. Then again, when we are in the midst of hopelessness, it is easy to think we gain some status or place in life by destroying others in many and various ways. Hopelessness kills from many directions so it is all the more important to hold onto something that cannot be lost or broken or destroyed.
Connection: I don't know what flips the switch between hopefulness and hopelessness. I do know that I have yet to defeat the power of hopelessness alone. I always find the need to have someone there to walk out of it with me. We can help one another by learning to walk with each other.
Lord of the Future, you do not let us settle or rest in what is, you continue to call us forward into your promises and in that, we begin to hope for what might be. Praise to you. Amen.
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