Our hearts are bombarded with news of the tragedies of war and deaths and hunger and hardships. We look around at the conflicts and suspicions dividing our nation, and we ache inside.
What can be done? What hope is there?
In his book, Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker Palmer suggests a reason for hope: “What happens next in you and the world around you depends on how your heart breaks. If it breaks apart into a thousand pieces, the result may be anger, depression, and disengagement. If it breaks open into greater capacity to hold the complexities and contradictions of human experience, the result may be new life.”
I pray for our hearts not to break apart amidst the agonies that beset us, but to break open into greater capacities to feel with one another and to care for one another.
Henri Nouwen points to another basis for hope even in these dark times: “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who have chosen to share our pain and touch our wounds.”
If you are hurting, look for the people who will share your pain. If you see someone else struggling, seek to be the person who will stand beside them. In doing so, you may earn the privilege of living forever in that person’s heart as one who means the most to him or her.
Helen Keller offers a third foundation for hope: “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”
When you look around at what is happening, look not only at the tragedies. Look also at what some people are doing to overcome suffering. Take hope from their actions and seek to copy the example they set.