Anne Lamott has, over time, become one of my favorite authors, because I know that, in moments of real doubt or pain, I can turn to her writing and find something at the heart of what I need to hear.
As usual, she didn't disappoint when I went looking for something about hope.
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Hope begins in the dark," Anne says, "the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up."
Over the last few months, I've been hearing a lot from people sitting in the dark, wondering about the dawn. And I can find no better response than our passage from this week, a song of hope from Isaiah:
"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that for which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."
It promises that our stubborn hope will be rewarded; that every time we show up and try to do the right thing, it matters.
It's a word I need to hear often, and one I hope you'll find encouragement from, too. Come, and bring a friend.
