Week of Hope – Saturday
Saturday is sometimes called Silent Saturday, a day of waiting, of shattered hopes, of finding a way to cope. Just like the disciples, we often experience our silent Saturdays.
Endure for the True Power of Hope
The key to every hope-er’s overcoming victory is stated clearly in Hebrews 6:12, “[Be] imitators of those who through faith [pistis] and endurance inherit the promises.” When we choose to keep our feet on the path of promise and endurance they walked, then we will be able to realize the true power found in hope.
Deborah L. Roeger, The Power of Hope, p. 104
Ministry to Those Losing Hope
There are few more hopeless feelings than watching the death of someone you love. Add to that the sense of frustration of grieving and mourning and wondering if it will ever get better. The simple answer is, yes. With rare exceptions, mourning eases and grief becomes something more bearable to live with. In those early days after a death, however, it is normal to wonder how anything can be better or how you can possibly come to a place where life is something that can be lived without the pain that accompanies the death of someone dear. Recently bereaved people sometimes wonder if there will ever be a normal to their life again.
Daniel Dixson, When the Casseroles Are Gone, p. 56
The short answer is, yes, there will be something normal about life again. It is often referred to as “the new normal” because certainly nothing can be the same as it was before losing a spouse, a parent, or a child. Life changes with the death but it does not always and forever leave a bereaved person stuck in the valley of the shadow of death with no hope and no way out.
“Thine Is the Glory”
The Lord’s Prayer, as it is found in the two Gospels – Matthew and Luke – ends rather abruptly, and on a rather dark note. It is no wonder that over time a more hopeful ending was given to it. In this closing stanza of the prayer, we are reminded of the resurrection. It is a post-Easter refrain, whereby we declare our allegiance to the God who is known in the person of the risen Christ. We’ve come in the hope of the resurrection, seeking to find strength and peace in the presence of God. It is in this context that
Robert D. Cornwall, Ultimate Allegiance: The Subversive Nature of the Lord’s Prayer, p. 49
we hear the call of God: Llft up your hearts, lift up your eyes, and behold what great things God is doing in your midst!
Visions of Hope to Come
Beauty may not save this world from all of its evils, but the Poet of the world will never stop offering new words of freshness and novelty and hope, as if tossing them out on postcards to be discovered by those who look for them. These fresh words beckon us toward “truth, beauty, and goodness.” For the truth is, Beauty will never stop blooming. God will never stop loving. Life will never stop surprising. Such is our “plank against the waves,” come what may.
Patricia Adams Farmer, Beauty and Process Theology, p. 41
