Hope is Complicated - Ken Brown 09.22.24

Okay, I confess that I couldn't take it any longer! I just had to read the last chapter of one of the most depressing, yet revelatory reads for me, Life After Doom by Brian McLaren. And no, I haven't completed the book yet. I needed an assurance that this book's winding road of McLaren's assessment that "the world falling apart" (his words) has a soft landing.
So here's the spoiler alert of the last paragraph of the book that I find compelling:
"Whatever happens to civilization as we know it, you and I - in our own wick, wax, and flame - can find and do what is ours to do right now and shine as magnificently as we can right now, each year that we're given, each day we're awake, each breath that we take. We don't need to know The Plan in advance; we just need to walk our path. In the walking, step by step, the way will unfold like tendrils reaching out from a billion branches, seeking light. The ultimate destination? That is beyond both our control and our capacity to know. So here we are: savoring this gift of this day, in this life, in these times, waking up in the unfolding mystery, and that is gift enough, here and now."
This paragraph pairs beautifully with Sunday's text, Psalm 1. Sometimes you need to know the end in order to stay the course. The psalmist reassures us that life and hope are complicated, yet God is faithful. "The Lord is intimately acquainted with the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked is destroyed." - Psalm 1:6
Join us on Sunday!