Hopeless

Good Friday doesn’t seem that good.

I read this beautiful post today by Lowell Grisham that seemed to sum it up so well. 

When the worst happens. That's today.

When a good person gets run over by injustice. When a friend betrays. When the systems of religion and society fail. When leaders make bad decisions. When fear predominates. When friends don't come through. When love is returned with callousness. When one who has healed is broken. When violence erupts. When compassion is absent. When public humiliation is inevitable. When there is nothing you can say. When there is no way out. When goodness counts for nothing. When the wrong people are in charge. When the mob starts to turn. When everything you stood for is dashed. When horrible pain is unavoidable. When you wish it would end and it doesn't. When evil triumphs. When the taste for torture feeds. When the strong oppress the weak. When people entertain their lowest instincts. When they lie. When everyone abandons. When the powerful attack. When exhaustion hits. When thirst is burning. When you can't breathe. When death is inevitable, slow agony. When God is absent. When there is no consolation. When all is hopeless.

These words struck me.  I see bits of this world every day.  When a good person gets run over by injustice.  When violence erupts.  When compassion is absent.  When there is nothing you can say. 

Something else struck me while reading this post.  On that day, there were helpers.  They wiped a brow, they carried the burden, they were simply there-their presence saying, I am here, I love you.

I can relate to that.  I am often with someone when the worst happens.  And most times, I have no words, there is only my presence to say, you matter and I care.

It isn’t hopeless.

We can look at Easter and think, it wasn’t hopeless on Good Friday.  We know the end of the story.

I don’t always know the end of the story in real life.  But I can hope.

That’s the Good I see in in Good Friday.

We can rise from hopelessness.