Grounds for Hope
It has been a difficult number of days in many ways due to the killings in Virgina on Monday morning. Again we have been shaken up. Again the clouds of death and fear have fallen over us and we lay open to being overcome by despair and darkness.

The debate has begun again on gun violence and gun control. Questions are being asked about ways to find people like this ahead of time and stop them. (Think of the movie Minority Report.) NBC showed the video from the gunman sparking another vigorous debate.

Debate is good. Conversations on the nature of our world and the ways we can deal with it are helpful. But what are we focusing on? Over and over and over we see the hate-filled, pain-filled and potentially fear-producing images.

I am quite aware that what occupies our minds can have serious negative impacts on our lives. Our brains are very sophisticated organs that are made to respond to our enviroments in sympathy, empathy, and compassion. But that also means that we respond to the darkness.

There is no reason to do so. There is light and hope and health.

As I sat on the bike at the fitness center Tuesday morning watching one of several variations of the same coverage on several different tv sets and listening to my iPod, God took hold of that shuffle and reminded me that this life is not to be about darkness. First came the Sam Bush song, Howlin' At the Wind that I quoted on Tuesday. Then, shuffled in right after that was John Michael Talbot's version of Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow. As he introduced it he asked his audience to stand and raise their hands together as a reminder that we need each other. We cannot do it alone.

So as we come to the close of this week, I bring back words from poet and theologian Gerhard Frost. Our District President sent it out to us this week. It may originally have been written for Christmas. But Christmas happens whenever hope and light is needed and born into the world. We need that reminder this week.

If I am asked
What are my grounds for hope,
This is my answer:
Light is lord over darkness,
Truth is lord over falsehood,
Life is lord over death.
Of all the facts I daily live with,
There's none more comforting
Than this: If I have two rooms,
One dark, the other light,
And I open the door between them,
The dark room becomes lighter
Without the light one
Becoming darker. I know
This is no headline,
But it's a marvelous footnote;
And God comforts me in that.
--Gerhard Frost