Authentic Hopefulness

1 Thess. 3: 9-13

Authentic hopefulness is important to being fully alive. Authentic hopefulness is rooted deeply in the waters of the Great Underground River that no one can dam up and no man can stop. It flows through all that is and includes our lives. There are times when glimpsing authentic faith, hope and love in others is renewing to our own. In The Message, a paraphrase of the above scripture by Eugene L. Peterson, Paul says to fellow followers of the Way in Thessalonica, Knowing that your faith is alive keeps us alive. Paul was in the middle of trouble and hard times when he wrote this.

Individually, all of us experience trouble and hard times. Collectively as humans in the cosmic drama of our evolvement, we also experience trouble and hard times. There are times when our individual trouble and hard times are a result of our immature attitudes and/or actions or inactions. But trouble and hard times do not necessarily mean we are always the direct cause of our distress. We have to honestly assess this. Trouble and hard times may also be a threshold for growth and development, both individually and collectively. During any time of difficulty and distress, authentic hopefulness helps us to survive and to keep us genuinely alive.

The Winter Solstice is a specific time as well as a metaphorical time when hopefulness is essential to keeping us alive when in the midst ofseemingly unrelenting hardship and darkness beyond our control. During December we will experience the Winter Solstice, a cosmic event beyond our control. Our part is how we respond to what we cannot control. Our response effects whether we emerge with hopefulness or depression and despair. We always have influence even when we do not have control. There is challenge for me here and I often need renewal of authentic hopefulness.

There is a song "I Am the Solstice" which says things I tend to forget. The following are portions of that song.

"I watch with loving eyes, it is my season. I release all fear and nourish the Truth. I bring peace and the stillness which comes from deep within. I bring rest and the gentle white snow that heals. I am forgiveness and through me you will forgive the past. Believe in me, the peace you seek is here...Come dance in the light of your spirit Be grateful that you and I are one. Accept yourself in Love and Truth with Me. We'll transform all things. In our embrace comes spring, new birth and life again."

It is my conclusion that much of the trouble and hard times we experience have to do with our individual and collective immaturity and that we are in a time of unfolding need for collective change, change which may be difficult for us individually and collectively but finally easier thanthe way of our current paradigm (model of how to live).

Teilhard de Chardin, the outstanding French 20th century scientist, priest and mystic came to believe through his studies, prayers and meditations that the cosmos in which we live has a repetitive pattern of expanding diversity, consolidating synthesis, a build up of pressure and then a leap across a frontier in which something new, good and exciting emerges which was always present but unimaginable until it visibly emerged. And he concluded that up till now the creative energy of the universe (The Cosmic Christ) has brought this about without human involvement (we were not present when much of this was happening). But now, as the youngest member of the cosmic family, we humans must dare to learn how to cooperate with the Divine intention in order for the process to continue forward. A part of this means we must authentically learn to cooperate with, value, and trust one another and all other aspects of the cosmic family. This is our metaphorical Winter Solstice and we are in it now.

To me authentic faith has always been about authentic hopefulness in the face of both the individual and the collective challenges we face. May we embrace the Winter Solstice individually, collectively, and metaphorically in ways that are supportive of the emergence of the good that as yet we do not see or imagine but is poised to emerge, that we may be alive.
Prayer: May the Spirit of Christ so fill us with authentic hope that new hope may be born in this century through us as it was born 2000 years ago through our elder brother, Jesus of Nazareth. AMEN

Thought for Today: There are new attitudes, understandings and actions that can nurture authentic hopefulness for me and for those I live among. I will look for them.

Glenn Hand-Truitt