Hope

During the week while browsing an online bookstore (as a librarian does), a comment about Walter Brueggemann caught my attention. In a recent book which is a compilation of his essays, he makes the point that truth must precede hope; otherwise hope is in danger of being a ‘false hope’.
 
We see evidence of this in today’s world where fake news and political spin seek to deny reality and to give us ‘false hope’. However, in facing up to the truth – both in the difficult and troubling times we try to avoid, and in the good and beautiful times we easily embrace – we can find the possibility of real hope. In reading these words I suddenly had a sense of why God is known as both the God of truth and the God of hope.
 
And so, as we face our own truth in these topsy turvy times in which our difficulties and our joys may be quite hidden from others, I pray for you the Wednesday benediction in Dayspring Daily Prayers:
 
May the God of hope
fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
so that you may abound in hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
(Romans 15:13, NRSV)
 
Yes, may the God of truth and hope bless you this week.
 
Brian Holliday