Informed

For the uninitiated visiting my office early in the morning can be a discovery.  It isn’t unusual to find someone working early.  Even listening to music isn’t a surprise.  The detail most find confusing is my particular choice of music; the blues.  Rarely does this choice make it past nine, yet it is my clear desire before then.  I find the combination of reality, sad, difficult, and challenging as the worst can be, with embedded optimism within to be extremely encouraging.  Simply; as I listen to the blues I rediscover hope.
 
I am not the first to make this connection.  Famous leaders, Martin Luther King Jr. for example, have fused life’s harsh realities and failures with the opportunity each has to make a difference in the future.  While most do not make the connection, it is hard to experience the “I have a Dream” speech without coming away with a parcel of hope.  We may not know why or how, but we can and will make a difference!
 
Even further back in history the same type of hope was being played out in the harsh reality of day to day living.  A woman loses her brother to death.  As Jesus arrives, her statement of faith captures the harsh reality, carries a simple indictment, and expresses the opportunity which remains.  “Master, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died.  Even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give you.”  (John 11.21, 22)  I listen to her words and I find myself holding onto hope!
 
In your life and mine there are far too many things that can drag us down.  From relationships, to the pain of suffering of disease, fear of the unknown, injustice, and even death, each faces a hell beyond their control.  Yet in the midst of this, in the harsh reality, we have the opportunity to embrace and believe.  God, Divinity expressed as love, compassion, and engagement, is ready to realize hope with our participation.  Today is an opportunity for the blues to become real.  We are the missing ingredient.