hope

I finished the Jim Wallis book I have mentioned here before. It is simply amazing. I think my Christmas shopping is done, as I can just order 28 copies from B&N.com and then hand them out.

I came across a Wallis quote on hope today also, and I so enjoyed it.

Perhaps the only people who view the world realistically are the cynics and the saints. Everybody else may be living in some kind of denial about what is really going on and how things really are. And the only difference between the cynics and the saints is the presence, power, and possibility of hope. And that, indeed, is a spiritual and religious issue. More than just a moral issue, hope is a spiritual and even religious choice. Hope is not a feeling; it is a decision. And the decision to hope is based on what you believe at the deepest levels - what your most basic convictions are about the world and what the future holds - all based on your faith. You choose hope, not as a naive wish, but as a choice, with your eyes wide open to the reality of the world - just like the cynics who have not made the decision for hope.


There is a chapter about Middle East peace, and in it he says something very profound that applies there but throughout our lives, too. He talked about both sides seeing themselves as victims, and when you are victims, you do not feel accountability.


I think those two thoughts are ultimately why I am hanging out less and less with my widow friends. It is largely circumstantial, also, as I am not a member at the ywbb anymore and so I don't know what is happening in their lives as much. But I think these thoughts get at the heart of why I am not a member there anymore.

I hope. It has not been squashed out of me. And I am not a victim. Becky was a victim, but I have come to see loss as part of being us. I don't have a monopoly on loss. I am not more devastated by it than others. I am broken, but who among us isn't? It is that hope and vision of overcoming victimhood that I tried to convey, and it was a message that simply wasn't welcomed by very many people.

Anyway, I am very inspired by this book. I want to see candidates endorse not only the language but the actions. The closest campaign I have seen to this book is the campaign by the governor-elect of Virginia. I think there is a lot of what I love about Bill Bradley in this book also. McCain, too.

Buy it. Read it. Don't be surprised if you unwrap it next month.