Cynicism and Hope

A friend just sent around an email thanking members of our congregation for sharing the burden of cleanup after a bullet came through her window in the middle of the night earlier this week. (Apparently it was from a random shot into the air from the street four stories below. No one was hurt.) She named five people—a pastoral team member, two other adults, and two preteens—who came over to help clean up the mess, then wrote:

Thanks for the fussin’! By asking for help, I got to dwell on thoughts of the team effort this community is for us. We’ve laughed through this, a way to cope with stress. With everyone’s care, it’s a light burden. We’re so glad to be here on the corner!

I’m most struck by the joy conveyed in the last sentence, the peace in a place of danger.

When the folks at Wipf and Stock (publishers of Cascade books) designed the cover of the Cynicism and Hope book, they make the “o” in “Hope” a bullet hole. Like my friend’s email, the cover perfectly captures the theme of this blog, the book, and the conference that preceded it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 10:04 am and is filed under community, violence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.