Rising Questions

In the midst of great uncertainty, many questions arise within us. Do we muster up our best face, stiffen our resolve, and simply try to return to life as usual? While such a course may seem appealing, or perhaps our only option, within we sense that such a possibility seems unreal and even inhuman. We are thoughtful beings, and as such, we cannot pretend that all is well. We cannot believe that a return to the trivialities of life will bring an end to our questions. Instead, what we must consider is our future. How will we live? What is life really about for us? What can we pick up and hold on to? Ultimately, in what can we hope and upon what do we build? When events in our lives force us to ask such questions, hope no longer remains a faceless longing. More than ever before, real hope becomes our desperate need.

If we are to obtain real and stable hope, the object of that hope must itself be enduring. As we consider what this might be, we must admit that visible things, while we somehow manage to grant them an inordinate amount of importance and place in them a good deal of confidence, are not really lasting. And what of the invisible things, our values, the virtues of humanity, and the ideas we treasure? While we might believe these to be permanent and indestructible, even these virtues seem short and empty today as we recognize that they are potential victims of the evils of mankind. Our growing realization is that this world, however much of our heart it has won, whatever amount of hope we have invested in it, is indeed passing away, even before our eyes.