When you give up hope, try just reaching out

By Mark A. Taylor

If you’re like me, you’re getting tired of hearing about the upcoming election. Every four years in September and October, the airwaves are filled with claims and counter claims by political opponents vying to get our vote. If you’re like me, your TV viewing is largely limited to Netflix or Amazon Prime, or you watch only prerecorded TV shows so you can fast forward past the political palaver. 

But occasionally, I must admit, I’ve contributed to the noise myself. I can’t resist posting a pointed proof that my conclusion, in contrast to the “error” I hear all around me, is reasonable and right. Once when I weakened to put my position out there, the resulting avalanche of discord amazed me. My detractors attacked passionately and personally, while those who agreed rushed to my defense and fired their own volleys toward my critics.

One friend wrote to say social media posts about politics always generate more heat than light, and I suspect he’s right. I doubt that one vote was changed by all the verbiage. 

A different path

I was remembering this last week when <Dean wrote> about the woman healed after touching just the hem of Jesus’s garment. “It’s a scene to offer us hope in 2020, an unusually difficult year,” he wrote. Many have given up or retreated to despair, he added, but he challenged us to take a different path: to find some positive way we can make a difference in our world, and to remember the power available to all who will reach out and touch just the hem of our Master’s garment. He reminded us that the first step is purposeful prayer. 

The first step is purposeful prayer

And then I thought about a conversation I’d had just a day before with a couple who described a distressing breach with someone in their family. It had gone on for years; they were hurt and surprised by all the ways this person objected to their every effort to bridge the gap between them. 

But now, a decade or so later, the situation is better. Everyone’s older. Some crises have passed, and there’s new compassion for new problems that have developed. “Time heals all wounds.” We mature, or just get tired of the conflict. But all of that’s not all of this. 

“God brought about this reconciliation because of our persistent prayer,” my friend told me. “We kept praying.” “We kept loving,” his wife added. And Jesus healed. 

Worth the reach

Every reader of this blog knows some situation that needs the healing touch of Jesus. Every reader has faced a disappointment or death or disease or some other distraction that has caused them to believe there’s no hope. But with just enough faith to reach toward the power only Jesus offers, we can find solutions for another day. And all of those outcomes will be better than anything a politician is promising. I, for one, am glad Dean reminded us of that this week.  

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Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash