I've been thinking a lot about hope lately. I used to find a deep sense of hope in the idea of, the symbol of, the Resurrection - that in some way, love finally triumphs over violence. I'm not so sure I believe in that world anymore. It seems that humans have the deep potential for immense good and for immense destructive and exploitative behavior. After I gave up on the idea of an interventionist deity years ago, I still held on to a poetic vision of love that overcomes, the image that love wins in the end. It was my way of dealing with the unjust world in which we live.

I do still buy the parable of the mustard seed - I see the reign of God -  that is, the world flooded with love, where injustice has ended - as a beautiful image for hope. The kingdom of God is within you, and that the potential for goodness to spread out like a weed from a single tiny seed is captivating as a parable.

I just don't know if there actually is, in this creation, a pull towards wholeness or not - that is, is God beckoning creation into wholeness? Or is God the interconnection of all things, only, and has no desire for wholeness in the world?

I find the first more comforting. I find the second much more existentially intimidating and angst-filled.

Faith leads us into uncertainty.