Category Archives: hope

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You May Say That I’m A Dreamer

On the day of Trump’s threat to slaughter Iranians in the name of religion.

Of course, it’s not why he’s doing it, it’s just his cover story. Endorsed by American MAGA pastors. There is so much to say, but also no point to saying it. They will do what they want to do, because the American checks and balance systems have been manipulated, overrun, and overpowered. We’re on the brink.

Where will this all go? Will it be halted in the 11th hour or continue on a path of no return? Will justice ever come?

I landed on this famous song in the interim. Every lyric isn’t consistent with my personal beliefs, but the heart of it is.

What if none of this Trump-horror story had happened? What if we could instantly arrive at the peace that has always been possible if not for conflict- and power-lovers over all of time?

It’s a dream, I know. Peace has been hijacked. Christianity has been hijacked.

Or is it a dream?

I’m going to keep on dreaming. I’m going to keep on with my God who is the God of truth, love, and justice.

They can take everything else. Or seem to. But they can’t take our belief in the core components of God: truth, love, mercy, justice. They can’t take our faith. They can’t force us to adopt their corrupted “Christianity” and their man-made religion.

I am holding on to the original, unchanging God. Because He can’t be erased or transformed by anyone. Not Trump. Not MAGA. Not a pastor or ten-million pastors. Not powerful systems. I’m simply sticking with God. Maybe that’s what is required of us. If we all give it away to the “takers and fakers”, maybe God will honor our collective free wills, and let it happen.

Because we gave it away when liars, users and abusers told us to.

Then not me. I’m holding on to faith that the seemingly-impossible …

Is actually possible.

I don’t care if you say that I’m a dreamer.

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Look Again

I took a long walk near my home in the middle of winter. It was a dreary day. Overcast. Colorless. Chilly. Lifeless.

I considered the gray day an appropriate metaphor for lives afflicted by cancer, injury and disease, injustice and abuse, theft and destruction, or hatred and rejection. I thought the scenery was also aptly representative of our nation’s political and cultural landscape.

Today, I took another look at the photos, and contemplated the biblical book of Lamentations. Its author is widely considered to be the prophet Jeremiah. In it, Jeremiah is … well, he is lamenting.

He is crying. Grieving. Moaning.

Jeremiah begins the third chapter, “I am the man who has seen affliction.”

He isn’t wrong to grieve — in fact he has good reason to do so. For twenty more verses he mourns the life that has become his. He describes darkness, grinding teeth, chains, evil, enemies, his wasting body, a soul bereft of peace.

Then, beginning in verse twenty-one …

21 But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Now, take another look at those winter photos …

Strain, if you must, to see  …

The color. The life. The warmth. The beauty. The hope.

Philippians 4: 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 

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It’s not that life isn’t hard, unjust, worrisome, or painful. It truly can be daunting, even devastating. And it’s right to lament those things — in fact, it can be essential for a future of wholeness, clarity and wisdom — but, before the heaviness of all that is wrong in our personal or collective lives burdens us beyond recovery …

Take another look at life. Strain to see good. Search for it as for gold.

It would be a shame to overlook the true, the noble, the pure, the lovely precisely when we need it most.

And it would be a grave error to forget the author of hope in the darkest of days.