© 2012 ALL SOULS CHURCH OF SEATTLE / INFO@ALLSOULSSEATTLE.ORG
When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
What is hope? Where does true, lasting hope come from? ––from a well-managed life? controlled and predictable circumstances? education? promised political or social change? cleaner neighborhoods? consumption and entertainment? eating local? the perfect latte?
Lasting hope––not hinging on circumstance or pedigree––is an outworking of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the reality that each of us is broken and in need of healing, wholeness, and acceptance, and these are precisely what God mercifully offers us in his Son. Simultaneously, we are more flawed and hurting that we dare imagine, and, yet, more loved and embraced by God than we dare hope.
Our hope is rooted in this astonishing good news (i.e. gospel), and that this gospel is not something that 'I have and someone else needs'; rather it is something that everyone needs all the time.
So our hope is not in pursuing more religious 'how-tos', self-help or 'church as usual.' Nobody needs more performance-based approval in their lives. Hope is not found in these, but in the experience of free grace.
Instead, the question we regularly ask is: What is the value of all that God has promised to us in Jesus Christ, for our lives right now? Where do everyday life and this historic Christian gospel meet?
Lasting hope is in what comes from discovering (rediscovering?) and pressing the riches of the gospel through our hearts and minds, and from there, into the practical, everydayness of life, work, and carpooling.
Hope is not rooted in what you’d like to see happen. Hope is rooted is what you’re certain will happen.
HOW CAN I KNOW GOD? / AN AFFILIATE OF GRACE SEATTLE
