Potential

When one looks back the scenes are incredible.  People meet when there is no possibility of the encounter.  Goals are achieved when everything said they were impossible.  Ideas flourished and became accepted even though they were initially ridiculed.  As one reflects on the memories we cherish, one finds evidence that challenges our fear and uncertainty about and for the future.  Not always, but some impossible challenges were taken on and conquered.  Not a certainty, yet the unimaginable did happen.  Even the fears we held at the time faded with the realities of what did come to pass.
 
We hold an incredible potential within our hearts.  As I wonder and struggle with the uncertainty contained in your future and mine, I find myself taking courage as I recall the past.  Divinity’s gifts to each one are extraordinary; compassion, mercy, love, the willingness to give up one’s life for a principle and ideal, and the ability to unconditionally accept ideas and others.  These exist with your life and mine.  You see them played out in the lives of great figures in history as well as in our own. 
 
Each time we hold these values true to our soul we strengthen the community in which we live.  Metaphorically, our acceptance and life says “His [God’s] ruling authority will grow, and there'll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.  He'll rule from the historic David throne over that promised kingdom.  He'll put that kingdom on a firm footing and keep it going with fair dealing and right living, beginning now and lasting always.  The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies will do all this.” (Isaiah 9.7) 
 
Your community and mine need engagement.  We have an opportunity to make a difference.  We can impact the lives of those around us in ways we don’t always understand.  The decisions are not always complex and difficult.  They are often simply of matter of awareness, willingness, and the choice to take action.
 
Hope is real.  Optimism is something we can feel and touch.  The source is God.  The choice to put “it” into action is ours.