Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of these three is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13

I like the way The Message puts this. The idea of hoping “unswervingly” I find encouraging. It makes me think that they’re will be times I want to swerve from hope, when it seems like hope isn’t the way, and that’s okay.

It happens when things feel hopeless and dark and like there’s no redemption.

Even in these times, “hope unswervingly.”

It happens when the injustice grows, selfishness prospers, and greed gets ahead.

Even in these times, “hope unswervingly.”

It happens when I feel small and powerless and at the end of my rope, having exhausted all my resources.

Even in these times, “hope unswervingly.”

I’ll confess that it’s difficult when I hear the news:
– National monuments stripped of their land and likely opening of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling
– Likely repeal of Net Neutrality
– Likely passage of the most regressive, harmful, pork-barrel-laden “tax” legislation in generations that’s likely to add over $1 trillion to the deficit, for no reason
– Upholding of the full Muslim ban
– Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord
– Saber-rattling and completely ignorant threat-exchanging with the one nation in the world most likely to actually nuke us
– Slow evisceration of the ACA, leaving millions without health insurance
– Transparently partisan posturing and legislating only to the base, while actively harming the majority
– Loss of vast numbers of experienced bureaucrats from all departments
– Needless ripping apart of families with the deportation of (harmless) illegal immigrants
– Destruction of DACA and deportation of potentially millions of young people who know no other home than America
– Utterly unqualified …boot-licking multimillionaire Republican donors placed in positions of power far beyond their capacities to effectively manage
– Destruction of the EPA and rolling back of Clean Air Act, with likely return to the hideous haze of yesteryear
– Complete distrust for news outlets unless they, too, are boot-licking toadies willing to propagate the delusional lies of our current leader
-… I’d better stop here, because these are getting longer, the list is nearly infinite, and I’m already forgetting…

“Hope unswervingly.”