Living in Hope in the World
"Hope in this deep and powerful sense is not the same as joy when things are going well, or willigness to invest in enterprises that are obvisously destined for early success, but rather an ability to work for something to succeed. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It's not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless how it turns out. It is this hope, above all, that gives us strength to live and continually try new things, even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do, here and now. In the face of this absurdity, life is too precious a thing to permit its devaluation by living pointlessly, emptily, without meaning, without love, and finally without hope." (Vaclav Havel)
I was blown away by this portion of a reading shared with us as we were comig to the close of our teaching this past week. I had come to this place so clouded by the preparations and emotions of this journey I am on, as most of you are daily, the guiding princple gets lost. Hope has and continues to be at the center of my faith, trust and guidence from my God. Yes, I claim faith, joy and love and yet without hope I would be unbalanced. Without hope I would turn around and say I cannot take another step, however my deeply rooted conviction in hope challenges me to take the risk for which I do not have the concluding answers for.
I don't know about you this day and your walk with the spirit, but I do want you to know living in hope in the world is a glorious place to be, even as potentiallly new wars may rise in the middle east, nature's storms cause darkness and despair or we as a nation continue to throw crumbs to the impoverished, I still have hope.
My final musing from Skanatelas,
Pastor Michael
"Hope in this deep and powerful sense is not the same as joy when things are going well, or willigness to invest in enterprises that are obvisously destined for early success, but rather an ability to work for something to succeed. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It's not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless how it turns out. It is this hope, above all, that gives us strength to live and continually try new things, even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do, here and now. In the face of this absurdity, life is too precious a thing to permit its devaluation by living pointlessly, emptily, without meaning, without love, and finally without hope." (Vaclav Havel)
I was blown away by this portion of a reading shared with us as we were comig to the close of our teaching this past week. I had come to this place so clouded by the preparations and emotions of this journey I am on, as most of you are daily, the guiding princple gets lost. Hope has and continues to be at the center of my faith, trust and guidence from my God. Yes, I claim faith, joy and love and yet without hope I would be unbalanced. Without hope I would turn around and say I cannot take another step, however my deeply rooted conviction in hope challenges me to take the risk for which I do not have the concluding answers for.
I don't know about you this day and your walk with the spirit, but I do want you to know living in hope in the world is a glorious place to be, even as potentiallly new wars may rise in the middle east, nature's storms cause darkness and despair or we as a nation continue to throw crumbs to the impoverished, I still have hope.
My final musing from Skanatelas,
Pastor Michael