4 March 2005

We end as we started the week - in "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann.

It is likely that the only measure of faithfulness is that hope always comes after grief and that the speaker of this public expression must know and be a part of the anguish which permits hope. Hope expressed without knowledge of and participation in grief is likely to be false hope that does not reach despair. Thus...it is precisely those who know the death most painfully who can speak the hope most vigorously.

When we talk of hope coming after grief it is a reminder that hope is not optimism. Optimism turns from grief and despair and sorrow and pretends to only see that which shines like a smile. Unfortunately, a good smile can shine enough to cover up the truth and keep us from seeing what has taken place and what must take place for life to really become new. There is a road between here and the promise of new life. New life is to come...but the journey on the road is beyond our control and like a birth of any kind, the road will be filled with pain and struggle...but also...life. The optimist negates the reality of the journey and thus loses the wealth of the struggle. In the struggle comes the character of promise.

Connection: Find someone or some people who will take on the journey with you. They are there and they will not simply try to make you smile...they will walk with you.

Lord, you come within the middle of the struggles that set us free. You call us right into the middle of them so that we will know the fullness of life as is comes to us. You hold onto us and urge us to hold onto one another so that as we walk into the promised land, we will have many who will join us in the celebration of new life. Thanks be to God. Amen.