In the midst of pain, despair, heartache, and sorrow, whether on a personal, communal, local, or global level, we are encouraged to seek and find hope.  In various psalms, the writers pour out their worries, fears, sorrows, and anguish to God, their raw emotions serving as a catalyst for pouring out our own feelings, as a form of therapy for releasing all that weighs us down and burdens us, and as a tool for healing after we have expended ourselves, raging at God, and eventually reorienting ourselves to seek and find the calm, peace, and hope we need.  For example, in Psalm 130, the psalmist wails, "From the bottom of a deep black pit, God, I scream at you!  The walls rise above my head, shutting out the sun.  Can you hear me, God?  I can't get out by own efforts.  I've tried and tried.  I climb part way out, and then I slide back again to the bottom.  Without your help, I'm sunk forever.  ... I shall lie down here in the depths of the pit and wait.  You are my only hope.  I shall wait for you ... I put my hope in you, God."  It can take a long time to go from yelling at God to putting our hope in God.  When our hearts and minds are swirling with strong emotions, it is easy to forget God, and to forget hope.   As we prepare for   Sunday's  worship service and message on hope in hopeless times, I invite you to ponder on the words in Psalm 130 and also on the words in the following quotes I culled from an internet search: "Hope is not pretending that troubles don't exist.  It is the hope that they won't last forever.  That hurts will be healed and difficulties overcome.  That we will be led out of the darkness and into the sunshine" ( www.livelifehappy.com); "A single thread of hope is still a very powerful thing" ( www.thedailyquotes.com).  Incidentally, if you're curious about the paraphrase of Psalm 130, you can find it in  Everyday Psalms  by James Taylor [Winfield, BC, Canada:  Wood Lake Books, Inc., 1994].  I took some liberties with his paraphrase, but the essential message is the same.  I hope to see you   on Sunday  to discuss more in depth the theme of hope! 

--- Rev. Stacy L. Thomas