A MESSAGE FROM THE REV. SUZANNE TRUMP: FINDING HOPE
Greetings Friends,
While at my previous church, I often worked with a local funeral director and whenever we saw each other we joked about getting a deserted island. We did not want to be together, we each wanted our own deserted island because life was so crazy, and we wanted to escape. I suspect that we are not the only ones feeling weary by everything going on around us.
It would not take but a minute to detail all the issues in our community and in our world and it is understandable that we would feel overwhelmed. If I focus on all the problems around me, I quickly descend into despair. I want to stick my head in the proverbial sand and forget about everything. And as tempting as that is sometimes, you cannot avoid the people and the world around us.
When you are feeling hopeless, what do you do? At my best moments I think about the things that I have control over and work to address those things. At my worst moments I think, why bother at all. And yet, ultimately there is very little we have direct control over, and avoidance does not solve anything. How do we have hope in our world that seems to be spiraling out of control?
I recently watched a panel discussion with a Sikh moderator, a Lutheran pastor, a Jewish rabbi and a humanistic chaplain on this very topic. And yes, the Lutheran pastor immediately joked after the introductions that this sounded like a joke, religious folks and a humanist walk into a bar… What I found was that both religious people and humanists have a great deal to say about hope. Not the cliché types of comments that we all know and probably say multiple times in our lives, but a true and comforting hope.
As Christians we are part of a long and wonderful story of hope. The story starts with our Jewish ancestors and continues with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are ultimately all about hope. Hope in the resurrection, hope in the promises that God gave to us, hope in our connection to all the wonderful ways God has acted in the past to save and renew God’s people. This is our story.
Just maybe, the key to having hope in the midst of all the issues surrounding us is to remember that we too are a part of God’s story and as God has acted with love and forgiveness in the past, we share in both that past and God’s ongoing love and forgiveness.
Perhaps the whole key to hope is to shift our focus from what troubles us to what a loving and redeeming God has in store for us and the world. It does not mean that serious issues are not facing us, but it does mean our hope comes through God and God’s love for us and the world God created. That is a solid focus of hope. May it be so. Amen.
Blessings,
Suzanne