-36Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. Luke 21:28I am, down to the very bottom of my soul, an optimist. I am the person who, when pushed off the roof of a 20-story building, shouts to the person standing at the 10th-story window, “So far, everything is going great!”Except this year. This year our communities continue to deal with COVID-19 and the information and misinformation that divide us. This year the women of Afghanistan, not to mention the men and children, are under siege again by a body-destroying, soul-sapping form of sexism. This year rallies in support of white supremacy attract more devotees while chronic frustration ignites arguments and fistfights in airports. This year my friends in New Orleans and California deal with the social and economic turmoil of climate change. This year my beloved partner of almost 35 years passed away.This year I read the warnings of the Lukan apocalypse without optimism. I fill each word of disaster with the scenes of the year almost gone—bombs exploding at airport gates, wreckage floating, houses burning, hospitals filled with people literally coughing their lungs up. And my optimism turns into a net with a large hole at the bottom of my fall from the 20-story building.Which means that now I can truly hope. My heart is no longer weighed down by a false optimism that keeps me from feeling the pain of the world or from sensing my own deep wounds. I can look out for signs of the presence of the Messiah among us, both transcendent and immanent, both beyond time and in time. And I can pray with you for the strength and the courage to hope in the face of all that has gone awry. Dr. Nancy Claire PittmanPresident andStephen J. England Associate Professor of the Practice of Ministry Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.