Finding Hope

A survey by a British insurance company found that on average each person loses 9 items per day and spends about 10 minutes per day looking for them. That’s 3,285 items per year, and about 60 hours lost per year (approx. 2.5 days).  Over a lifetime that’s around 200,000 items lost and over 150 days spent looking for things!Unfortunately, I think I’d have to add more time than the average, because of the number of times I go upstairs looking for something, and then forget what it was that I went to find!... “Now… what was I looking for?”“What are you looking for?” is a question that Jesus poses to a couple of his disciples at the beginning of John’s Gospel.  And it is an excellent question to think about at the start of a new decade.“What are you looking for?”When the 2010s began, smartphones were in their infancy artificial intelligence had few consumer-facing applications, self-driving cars were a sci-fi fantasy, space rockets were only used once, Netflix was not available in the UK, 3G data service was as good as it got and no-one knew how to dance ‘Gangnam style’.  In the last decade there have been some amazing technological advances, and there have also been some huge changes in the global political climate...  We’ve seen the Arab spring with regimes toppled in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine (reigniting cold war tensions), civil war in Syria, the rise and fall of ISIS and the rise of the political far right.  After years of increasing free trade the latter part of the decade was marked by trade wars, mainly instigated by the USA, which have had a huge impact on the global economy.  In the 2010 general election UKIP secured just 3% of the vote.  This grew to 13% in 2015 and the ongoing swing in public opinion resulted in a vote to leave the EU in 2016. On top of all this we have seen growing awareness of the  climate change challenges we are facing, much of it concerning the connection between global warming and extreme events—heat waves, hurricanes, floods, droughts and wildfires.Andy Beckett writes, “How will we remember the last 10 years? Above all, as a time of crises. During the 2010s, there have been crises of democracy and the economy; of the climate and poverty; of international relations and national identity; of privacy and technology.” 

We are living in a time of increasing fragmentation, and non-stop news services have made awful events seem relentless and impossible to ignore.  This has contributed to many people feeling perpetually anxious.However, amidst all the problems of the world, there are some people and movements that are making positive change.  The last decade saw the Me Too movement fighting back against sexual harassment and sexual assault, Greta Thunberg inspiring increasing numbers of strikes to campaign for action against climate change, anti-racist movements and many more. Peaceful, revolutionary agitators started movements that are making a huge difference.Locally we’ve seen ongoing increases in people’s generosity; in the donations received at the foodbank and in our furniture recycling project.  People have been generous in time and money to help those in our communities that are most in need.  In our villages many people volunteer in so many different ways; in our schools, nursing homes, helping out neighbours and more.  Many others go above and beyond what they’re paid to do in making a positive difference in the lives of others.  Despite what we may see in the news, I find hope in the people I see in our communities that continue to do the ‘right things’.  So, looking ahead to the 2020s, what are you looking for? What do you hope for in the next decade?   In the storms that may rage around us, my prayer is that people will find the inner peace and strength to do (as Anna sings in the Frozen 2 movie), “the next right thing”.  This is the peace that Jesus (a peaceful revolutionary agitator of his day) promises his disciples (John 14:27).  Not the absence of conflict or persecution, but a peace that transcends all that; a peace that comes from him, that offers hope and strength in the midst of change and uncertainty.  We will be exploring these themes through our lent course this year, ‘From Now On’ (details inside) which is based on the film, ’The Greatest Showman.’  If you are looking for something different this decade, that that course may be a good place to start.Rev B Jackson