Surrender is not an option

Surrender is not an option.  I cannot imagine giving up my faith in the real presence of a loving Spirit who is with us on this long walk [Trail of Tears] we call life.  I know goodness is there, kindness is there, compassion is there, no matter how final the triumph of fear may seem, nor how great the power that holds the human heart down.  I will not abandon my belief in the coming dawn just because I dwell in the midnight hour.

          Steven Charleston, “Ladder to the Light”  p.64

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It feels like the midnight hour

Like the deepest deep

The darkest dark

 

we see murdered children

immigrants callously left to die from the heat

 

we see injustice roll down like waters,

and self-righteousness like an ever-flowing stream

 

we see those who claim God

embrace the Kingdom of the World and its way of domination and coercion

instead of the Kingdom of Heaven and its way of service and love

 

it is an ugly time

 

where the powerful abuse their power

where the rich sell out the righteous for profit

and the needy for a second (or third) house

where the heads of the poor

are trampled into the dust of the earth

and the vulnerable are abandoned (Amos 2)

 

It feels like the midnight hour

and I fear for the poor

the ill

 

I fear for women

and people who are LGBTQI+

and are BIPOC

in this time when the seeds

of nationalism, and totalitarianism

the seeds of racism and misogyny

and greed

 

have blossomed

like virulent weeds

 

it feels like the midnight hour

dare I hope?

dare I believe that the dawn is coming

 

can “I know goodness is there,

kindness is there,

compassion is there,

no matter how final the triumph of fear may seem..?”

 

yes!

 

the trail is long

and watered with tears

and yet the Spirit walks with us

Love walks with us

 

and we cannot abandon hope

 

instead, when the night is darkest

we most hold on to hope

 

hope is not a wish

but an intention (Steven Charleston)

 

hope is lived

hope builds on itself

hope grows

as the people of hope together

stand

resist

care

love

welcome

and yes, vote

 

we cannot accept the darkness

we cannot get used to the darkness

we cannot sit hopeless in the darkness

 

for the Spirit is with us

and the dawn is coming