The Most Important Thing

I’ve written on a lot of different topics over the past 18 months while here on Substack. I’m curious if you’ve noticed what is most important to me?

The importance of holding on to hope.

It doesn’t matter to me if you call yourself a Christian, spiritual but not religious, or maybe you’re just simply here to explore, without choosing to label yourself anything. (I’m usually one of these three things at any given time!) We’re all in the same boat—faced with the same opportunity for how we’re going to look at our self and our life.

Wherever you are on this journey of life, holding on to hope is what is going to keep you alive and moving forward. Without hope, what’s the point? The Bible (in Proverbs 29:18) says, “Without a vision, the people perish.”

With what kind of vision are you seeing the world?

The onslaught of recent political ads have been trying to get us to see the world as being on the verge of utter disaster if so and so isn’t elected. And God forbid, those other evil people who promote murder and rape get elected. Some even feel our faith is under attack. To be certain, my faith isn’t affected by elections.

I hear many people speaking of doom and gloom. I hear very few people talking all the good that is happening all around us. I hear a lot of people talking about how evil people are. I don’t hear many people talking about how beautiful people are.

Hope believes in good—that we are surrounded by it, infused with it, and capable of sharing it with others. You might call this goodness God. I do. Some call it love. I do. I hope you’ve experienced this love. This God-ness, or good-ness, this love, is what connects us. Or at least, what can connect us, if we let it.

We are all capable of being God’s representatives of goodness on Earth. Even better, we are already showing off a bit of God just by us being alive. And so is every other person you meet. John Pavlovitz says, “When you meet another person you are coming face-to-face with a once-in-history, never-to-be-repeated reflection of the image of God.” I love that so much.

The problem is that our God-ness gets covered up. Some of it is our own doing, some is just life happening to us. But it can get so covered up that we start to question whether it exists, at all. Do we even have any good inside of us? I mean, I might? But do they—those other people— over there?

I want to keep shouting a resounding YES in your direction. And in the direction of everyone I meet.

We are capable of doing beautiful things during our limited time here on Earth. We are also capable of doing ugly, destructive things. The more we are in tune with our own Belovedness, we can continue casting a hope-filled vision for building up, rather than tearing down. For lifting up, rather than putting down.

I hope your life provides you with opportunities to remind yourself of this truth. Maybe just hanging out here with me can give you that reminder from time to time. Perhaps you’re lucky enough to have a person or people you hang out with who remind you of your Belovedness. It’s super important to remember.

I’ve been told that many people listen to music on YouTube! Here’s an apropos song for this post! One of my favs.

And here’s a link to an entire compilation I put together. I called it “Greatest Hits” (with a wink). Hope you enjoy!