Hope?
How does hope overcome? When things are difficult or confusing, how do we still hold and proclaim hope? This question has been present for us this year in so many ways. With both pediatric and adult ICU’s full, I worry about our health care professionals who have already given so much of themselves over the last year and a half. I pray for them to have strength and know how beloved they are. I worry what it must be like for one’s child who is not eligible to be vaccinated to have trouble breathing or feel all alone in the hospital and I pray that they know that they are not alone. If God is to be found anywhere, it is in the midst of the little ones who cannot protect themselves.
I worry about the anxiety and pressure our educators must feel in a calling that has at its heart the desire to care for and encourage growth in the most intellectually and emotionally fertile of our society. I pray that they can be relieved of distractions and swirling noise so that they can center themselves on those given into their care and know that God takes joy in every connection and truth that takes root in their ministry to their students.
I worry what it must be like for some to be afraid to come to church. The place that is meant to be respite and comfort lives alongside a fear of getting sick or unknowingly getting someone else sick. We have done so very much in these many months as a church to let you know that you are not alone. We have shared online offerings, zoom meetings, field church, church in the nave, Easter surprises at your doorsteps and signs in your front yards. But I still worry about you as this pandemic goes on. The universal church has been through a great deal over the last two thousand years and the hope we proclaim has survived through the challenges of so many eras and places. Hope persists. Hope abides. Hope even grows.
Why does hope grow? What is this blessed assurance that comes to us even in the most dyer of circumstances? Our hope comes from outside and beyond ourselves. It comes from the one who showed us that he knew all along that his suffering would not be the last word. He came to show us the persistence of life and love. He came so that in every place and time we can hope in him. Friends, so much about this moment is hard and scary. So much of what we see and endure is not as we would want it to be. But we have Jesus and Jesus is all in all. He is a balm and comfort for our hearts. I pray for you take a deep breathe of this true hope into your very being and know you are loved and you will never be alone.
We love you and God loves you
Josh Condon+