Living in Hope for a Better Tomorrow – A New Year’s Eve Reflection

 

                As the Chicago Cubs fans were famous for declaring after another season without a World Series victory, there’s always next year. As we bring 2020 to a close that sentiment may resonate with many of us. The year 2020 has proven to be one of the most challenging in recent memory. A deadly pandemic combined with a racial reckoning that began with the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police has been accompanied by an election and its aftermath that has threatened the very foundations of our nation. This coming year has to be better, though getting to where we wish to be will take time. Much damage has been done to the nation and to the world itself. Though I am hopeful that a new President in Joe Biden along with a vaccine will help pave the way for healing, we still have a lot of work to do. That will start with a large swath of the populace letting go of conspiracy theories that have been touted by the current President and his allies.

                I’m by nature an optimistic person. I tend to believe that our better angels will come forward. But my optimism is shaken. We have become beholden to conspiracy theories, mostly from the right but some from the left. Many seem attracted to populist visions that willing to entrust our future to the hands of strong men. Right now the only institution that seems to have held firm in the United States is the Court System. Even judges appointed by Donald Trump have stood up to the false claims of Trump and his enablers. They’ve demanded proof and have only received allegations and innuendo. I’m grateful to the judges at every level who have looked at a Constitution, but even the Constitution is showing us that it may not be up to the task for the long term. If we do not trust our elections to be fair and just, then we have a problem that won’t be easily solved. Now it looks as if January 6, the day on which Congress is supposed to receive the election results from the States and confirm the decision made by the voters of the states, will become another stage for Trump allies to undermine our democracy. It appears that a Senator has agreed to join the challenge to the election results. It is bound to fail, but seeds of doubt will continue to be sown, making healing even more difficult.

                I have a challenge for any Senator or member of the House who hails from one of the states, including Michigan, who decides to raise a challenge to the election results in their state to immediately resign. For if the elections in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Arizona are fraudulent, then surely their results are fraudulent. If the Democrats were so intent on stealing the election from the Republicans, how come the Republicans did so well in the election. The only candidate who seemed to do poorly was Donald Trump. It appears that quite a number of voters chose Biden and a Republican. If Democrats could steal votes, surely, wouldn’t they have increased their numbers in the House and Senate? So, please, let it go. Let’s get on with solving the big issues facing us, like the pandemic, economic revival, immigration reform, and police reform, just to name a few.

                I have hope that tomorrow will be better. That hope gives me the strength to face tomorrow. Actually, it’s not the possibility that tomorrow will be better that gives me hope. It is God who I know in Christ who gives me hope for tomorrow, that’s why hope is different from optimism.  As Paul writes to the Romans: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13). Of course, that better future toward which we move won’t happen without our participation. As Jürgen Moltmann reminds us: “Hope does not guarantee that one will have only the wished-for experiences. Life in hope entails risk and leads one into danger and confirmation, disappointment and surprise. We must therefore speak of the experiment of hope” [The Experiment Hope, p. 188]. With that, we can say goodbye to 2020 and welcome 2021!