"Here, Hoping"

One of our group members has passed along this incredibly moving blog post.  In it, the author poignantly expresses the way despair and sadness can make us feel alienated from the beauty and goodness of creation.  In such a state, the act of hoping is revealed not as superficial, naive optimism, but rather a painful cry for help.  To trust that we, too, broken and hurt as we are, are part of "God's wonderful works" is the difficult task we all face - especially when we are in the throes of discouragement.