A friend said the other day that she can’t bear to watch the news. I agreed. Watching the 11:00 news used to be a nightly ritual, one I inherited from my parents. That was how the day ended, watching the news. It was drilled into me that it was important to be informed. I can’t do it anymore. There is so much grief on the news, so many bad news stories, I cannot go to bed and sleep with all that on my mind. I do listen to the radio through the day in order to keep up to date with world events but this morning, as I was driving to work, radio on in the car, I had to turn it off. I could not listen to one more report of violence or tragedy. I want to be mature, responsible and a good world citizen but I have to care for my soul too.
How do you hold on in the midst of so much strife? How do you keep hope when it is so easy to point to cause for despair? I think this is a crucial question for us. I find the book of Psalms is a tremendous resource that reflects the gamut of human emotions. Read Psalm 6. It is a pure, unabashed despair. I love verse 6, “I drench my couch with weeping.” There is no happy note, no lightness at the end, just sorrow through and through. It seems to me it gives permission to enter those dark days because, let’s face it, there are days when nothing goes right and every things seems wrong. As counterbalance there is Psalm 129, a reflection of God’s presence everywhere. My grandmother’s favourite was Psalm 121. It encourages us to “look to the hills” for God’s help.
On Sunday, a couple brought two chrysalis of monarch butterflies. They had been watching them and knew they were about to emerge so they brought ‘the nursery’ to church so we could all enjoy that small miracle of creation. As we stood around the table, coffee cups in hand, enjoying the after church chat, it was incredible to see the tiny hanging pouch break open and watch beautiful orange and black wings unfold. Even “awesome” seems too small a word.
One person said this week, when I asked how she holds on to hope, “The big picture of the world can look quite bleak but the small picture view is pretty wonderful.” Good advice. So, when the news gets me down, when I can’t figure out how to hold on to hope, I … talk to a child, watch a butterfly, listen to music created by an orchestra – all those people playing together, smell the fragrance of a star-gazer lily, eat ice cream. None of those things will change THE world but each one of them changes MY world and my view of the big picture. Scripture words of promise and hope combined with small things give me hope and help me hold on. How about you? What do you do?
