03/Apr/2008
Hope and Grief
By Dr. Jay Hogewood, Pastor
University Baptist Church, Baton Rouge
The poet, Christina Rossetti, is helping me manage life these days. Over a hundred years ago, she wrote a poem titled, “Hope in Grief.” In it, she concludes:
“Our present life is as the night, our future as the morning light:
Surely the night will pass away, and surely will uprise the day.”
I’m sharing Rossetti’s thoughts in the middle of Holy Week. From the shadows of Maundy Thursday to the morning of Easter, I, like so many other Christians through the centuries, find it difficult to settle on one overriding emotion. At the same time we acknowledge Jesus’ monumental pain and suffering to death, we anticipate his rising up from the tomb. It’s hard to know whether to cry from grief or shout for joy.
These few days in the holiest part of Holy Week remind me how life is just this way: we dance in the circle of hope or grief. Which way should we step? With which foot shall we dance?
When we look around the world and see such tragedy – poverty and hunger, oppression and injustice, war and violence, it’s hard not to hang our heads and cry, or do our best to just hold on through the dark night.
And still, a closer look finds that wonderful things do happen. Friendships are made. Lovers embrace. Babies are born. Patients survive cancer. Near misses and close calls leave us room to breathe deeply the breath of God. We take joy in the brand new day.
Amid it all - the dying and living, the hurting and hoping, the pain and promise - maybe balance is the best byword. Night bleeds into day. Day withers into night. There is darkness and there is light. It is merely elemental to experience both. But even more, it’s faithful to live our best through both.
So here’s what I’m going to do - both. Square my jaw straight into grief when it swirls by. Turn my eyes directly into hope when it dances through. Grief and hope: the balance of both might not make for an easy life. But both do make for a deep life, a rich life, a faithful life.
On the tightrope,
Jay
By Dr. Jay Hogewood, Pastor
University Baptist Church, Baton Rouge
The poet, Christina Rossetti, is helping me manage life these days. Over a hundred years ago, she wrote a poem titled, “Hope in Grief.” In it, she concludes:
“Our present life is as the night, our future as the morning light:
Surely the night will pass away, and surely will uprise the day.”
I’m sharing Rossetti’s thoughts in the middle of Holy Week. From the shadows of Maundy Thursday to the morning of Easter, I, like so many other Christians through the centuries, find it difficult to settle on one overriding emotion. At the same time we acknowledge Jesus’ monumental pain and suffering to death, we anticipate his rising up from the tomb. It’s hard to know whether to cry from grief or shout for joy.
These few days in the holiest part of Holy Week remind me how life is just this way: we dance in the circle of hope or grief. Which way should we step? With which foot shall we dance?
When we look around the world and see such tragedy – poverty and hunger, oppression and injustice, war and violence, it’s hard not to hang our heads and cry, or do our best to just hold on through the dark night.
And still, a closer look finds that wonderful things do happen. Friendships are made. Lovers embrace. Babies are born. Patients survive cancer. Near misses and close calls leave us room to breathe deeply the breath of God. We take joy in the brand new day.
Amid it all - the dying and living, the hurting and hoping, the pain and promise - maybe balance is the best byword. Night bleeds into day. Day withers into night. There is darkness and there is light. It is merely elemental to experience both. But even more, it’s faithful to live our best through both.
So here’s what I’m going to do - both. Square my jaw straight into grief when it swirls by. Turn my eyes directly into hope when it dances through. Grief and hope: the balance of both might not make for an easy life. But both do make for a deep life, a rich life, a faithful life.
On the tightrope,
Jay
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