Building up your hope: Danina Stefan’s Thought for the week
‘What can I do to bring hope to this space?’
This week, after some interesting ministries at Meeting for Worship, I have been thinking about hope. It came to me that despair, the opposite of hope, often comes after we create a wall of strong opinions. This wall may be based on upsetting facts or half-truths, but it doesn’t and cannot include all the facts and truths, since this is simply not possible. When we build this wall, therefore, it involves our opinion, not the absolute truth. The more we believe in it, the more we despair, especially if the facts are alarming.
I have discovered my own wall of despair. It is built of all kinds of worrying facts about our world: from the climate crisis; to the war in Ukraine; to the island of plastic, the size of Texas, that floats on the Atlantic Ocean; to the huge gap between the rich and poor, growing faster than ever; to the worrying economic situation in Britain; to Covid, and on and on. It is a very solid wall, with facts that can hardly be denied.
What can I do to bring hope to this space? Suddenly it came to me: the simple but powerful word ‘mystery’ – the ‘fifth element’, defined by the Sufi mystic Rumi as ‘the things that are present through their absence’. It is the mystery of the unknown, beyond the wall, the other facts hidden from me, the facts that can maybe bring hope but I don’t know them.
So, what do I have to do? I bring that mystery into a fold, make a crack in the wall, and let the ray of hope in. It is a small ray of hope, a mere possibility that our world, our planet, is not going to die after all. It is not a fact. It is only a hope, but it also brings a seed of faith and gratitude.
My focus shifts and, instead of desperately staring at my wall of despair, suddenly my heart is filled with love, love for life, for every moment of it, full of gratitude. My feeling of time changes too. I am still and protected in the room of wonder and awe that never dies. Flowers, birdsong, morning breeze, a lake that changes its colours and moods, simple, kind words, hugs, love for my family and friends, my pupils, my children, music that takes me where no words can, the taste of morning coffee and cake… the list goes on and on.
Yesterday I watched the beautiful film Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders. The ray of hope that entered through the crack of my wall of despair makes me feel a bit like the angel in this film, who traded eternity for life here on Earth, enjoying everything from the taste of an apple to a passionate love.
I am not a fool. The sad facts that built my wall are facts, and I cannot simply forget about them. But I will try to keep that crack open, nevertheless, by keeping the mystery of the unknown alive, and cherishing the ray of hope, like a drop of water in my palm. I will carry on doing my bit to help save the planet. I will let my faith grow. I will focus on love. I will survive.
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