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Just
Hope Overcomes Hopelessness
Doug Pagitt
"Hope disappears when we say that whatever
will be, will be. When we are no longer looking for a better
outcome, when we are no longer frustrated, we become hopeless
people.
Situations of injustice can be a breeding ground
for hope, for it is then, frustrated by injustice, that we see
clearly what ought to be. In our frustration, in our refusal to
resign ourselves to things as they are, our communities tell stories
of struggle, tragedy, pain, and brokenness. By telling those
stories, we keep resignation at bay and we dedicate ourselves, in
hope, to participate with God in the dawning of a better day. We
refuse to resign ourselves to the world as it is so it can become
the world as it ought to be. That is when we are buoyed to keep
living, to keep looking, to keep going. Some fear that to talk about
injustice, struggle, and frustration will destroy the morale of a
people or cause a gloomy spirit. But I find that this attempt to
mute or hide difficulty and struggle actually cuts off hope. ...
So may we be people of frustration in all times
when we know that things are not as they are meant to be. And may we
be those who participate in bring about the very world whose absence
and delay frustrates us. May we be children of a hope and a future.
May the name of God, I AM, empower each of us to be people who echo
with our own I am ... 'I am crying, I am trying, I am changing, I am
hoping, I am believing.'
May we, believing, be people of just hope."
Pagitt pastors and owns businesses in
Minneapolis. "Just Hope" in The Justice Project
edited by Brian McLaren, Elisa Padilla and Ashley Seeber, Baker
Books, 2009, 249.
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