Hope

Today we are struggling to find hope. Hope seems elusive.  How quickly things can shift. If we place our trust or build our foundation upon emotions , upon other people, upon systems and structures, upon expectations, we will always be disappointed and this disappointment  can so easily lead to despair if we are not vigilant and understand ourselves and our circumstances.

So how can we find hope in the midst of struggles and suffering? How can we find hope in bitter disappointment? How  can we keep finding hope every day , living with ME and all the injustice that goes with it?

We must turn our inner eyes to God. We must seek the goodness that is present and possible . We must look with eyes of hope toward the future. We must embrace  above all the stillness and the Truth of our being, which like the daffodils just opening are alive with mystery, light and life.

Hope, it seems,  then ,is not of the head, but of the heart. Is it not about knowledge, it is  about goodness and faith.  Hope is of the Spirit. It is moving , constantly blessing and lifting us always above our present reality, so that we will always prevail This is why we need to open our inner eyes and lift them higher than material things that trouble us , to feel the presence of hope within us.

This is what Christ came to teach. He did not come to teach us dogma and rules , rather he was more concerned with feeding the poor, setting people free, bringing goodness in to peoples lives, but above all he taught us to see with new eyes - and with new eyes, we realise, that we  may never know  exactly what hope is, but with humility we  can live in the mystery and the blessing  of hope and in  so doing , we do not despair.

Let us ask then to constantly remember hope. Let us always keep our inner eyes on God, who keeps us safe  and brings  us the gift of hope each day. Amen.