Despair and Hope

Justice -- do you rulers know the meaning of the word? Do you judge the people fairly?
No! You plot injustice in your hearts. You spread violence throughout the land.
These wicked people are born sinners; even from birth they have lied and gone their own way. They spit venom like deadly snakes; they are like cobras that refuse to listen,
ignoring the tunes of the snake charmers, no matter how skillfully they play.
Break off their fangs, O God! Smash the jaws of these lions, O LORD!
May they disappear like water into thirsty ground. Make their weapons useless in their hands.

Psalm 58:1-7


"You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also.

Matthew 5:38-39

"The distinguishing characteristic of absolute despair is silence. There is a world of difference between the person who, believing that there is no use, says so to himself or to no one, and the person who says it aloud to someone else. A person who marks his trail into despair remembers hope - and thus has hope, even if only a little." -Wendell Berry

The two closest people to me in my life have recently cried out in protest. (See www.krickard.blogspot.com and www.scottdarfur.blogspot.com) The question I am asking is, why do they continue to raise their voices with little assurance that it will actually change anything? What is the use? No one is going to listen, not for very long anyhow. Not because we do not care, we just know that there really is no reason to hope, nothing is going to change. We are up against too much.

But it is in true despair that one can truly begin to hope. What is it that my friends hope for? In one sense (and the sense that I am addressing in this blog, there are of course many more aspects to their hope) they are hoping against a living death. They are hoping that the person that they believe themselves to be, is in fact who they really are.

I love these two people because I cannot imagine the day when violence against the defenseless and the systemic oppression of women does not cause them to cry out in anger and sorrow. Their agony is so beautiful because it is marked with an unquenchable hope.

Real hope is so rare these days. Happiness and contentment are far more desirable. Hope will drive us mad and it will ravage and destroy us. Because ultimately it is insane to ask mountains to lie flat or to plead for deserts to fill with water. And in reality that is what Kate and Scott are asking for.

To Kate and Scott, I thank you for the marks that you have left into your trail of despair. They are guideposts to others who would wish to find hope.