no triumphalism here

I read two blogs yesterday that I found very helpful in terms of hope that comes in small ways rather than any big shiny victory. My friend Sally writes here:
http://sallysjourney.typepad.com/sallys_journey/2014/05/trying-to-keep-something-alive.html
"We walk on from this point, and as we do we probably have questions, we may wonder why Peaches, Peter and the fictious Colin's lives were not so transformed that they became the good upright people that triumphalism expected them to become. We may wonder if God really exists at all? We may be confused, grieving or simply left feeling numb in the face of so much darkness, but that is precicely where new life begins, and we need grace to see it."

and references another blog I'd already read:
http://thisestate.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/rev-broken-arms-little-easters.html
which questions the concept of a "Resurrection faith {that} is either protection, or liberation, from the tragedies of day-to-day reality. It happens instantly, and it lasts for ever. Easter morning comes, and everything from now on is as bright as the mid-day sun."

Instead he speaks of "A sense that it doesn’t all suddenly turn out right, that fear and bewilderment accompany resurrection, that there are slow, painful journeys of ‘working through’, and that when disciples return to the city with good news, they are also returning to a place of threat, vulnerability and violence, much of which they find they themselves are implicated in."

It's good to read of this honesty - I suspect most of us have our struggles, we are all still working through things, and the darkness lingers rather than is completely eradicated by light. I like to offer hope, my bio reads "lover of humanity, harbinger of hope". I will be delighted if we can deliver Hope not Hate papers on Sunday; I'm looking forward to singing with joy at a wedding this morning. But I don't think hope, joy - or even love - are always easy. As people often bashed and broken by life's occurrences so far, we do our best to be the hope, love and joy we can be to others, and to find it for ourselves, but none of us are perfect, and our lives don't become perfect.

I wish you - as always - much love, hope and joy today, knowing that it won't be 100% glorious cos life just isn't like that. Enjoy the bits you do spot :)
xx