What are we hoping for?

Last night I went to our congregation's BGLT Welcoming Congregation monthly workshop. Only three people came, but it was truly worthwhile and meaningful to those of us who where there.

Not surprisingly, conversation eventually turned to politics, the excitement over Barack Obama's election, and the sadness felt over blows to marriage equality in California, Florida and Arizona.

Mostly though, we talked about our hopes for Obama - and the inevitable disappointment that will come over someone who has been put on such a high pedestal of hope.

Barack Obama's election came at a time when Americans en masse are disillusioned with the state of affairs in our own homeland and in many countries abroad. His election was built upon high ideals and the courage to hope. His speeches challenged us to use our imaginations to envision, and then work for, a better way.

This last point is what warmed my heart and got me excited for Obama. My hope is that more of us will start seeing ourselves not as separate from government, but as an integral part of the political process, and as our own agents of change.

I have heard it said and seen it written all over the internet that Now is when the hard part begins. I think this is true; now is the time for each of us to begin again our work for social justice. We can renew our own commitment to making the world a better place. We can make more time to care, we can support our chosen president by still believing in what we voted for, we can believe that, "We are the ones we've been waiting for, we are the change that we seek." (Barack Obama).

For me personally it can be difficult to remain passionate about problems that never seem to go away. It is hard to care about the hungry in our community, or the children we see in our lives who struggle to breathe or have never climbed on a rock in the forest. It is disheartening to work for equality in your own community to see only two other people show up for the event you helped to organize. I hardly have the will to read the stories from Iraq and Afghanistan, when the only things I read are the same stories of despair and destruction over and over, year after year.

These things are hard.

But then again, we are brought back to that hope thing, that energy that has come up from Obama's monumental campaign and election.

In the last week, I have found myself re-energized, possessing a new hope and the energy I have been waiting for. I am ready to begin again the difficult task of justice building. I have my own causes, my own issues that are and should be different from yours, but I hope that the hope we feel is the same.

In the next few days, as I am overwhelmed by the workload and menial tasks that come along with high ideals, I hope I remember to enjoy it and to just feel good about all that I am doing, no matter how small or big of a job it seems.

For me, this means getting all our ducks in a row for our upcoming Winterfaith celebration. It means showing up for math tutoring on Friday at the middle school. It means getting up and dressed on Saturday morning to give away food to those who feel they need it. It means trying to see the value in organizing a cookie dough fundraiser when it just seems frivolous and silly. It means working out, and not buying that un-ethical and bad for you bag of chocolate marked down 90% at the supermarket. It means remaining present here at home with my own family, and extending kindness to friends and family alike.

I suppose for right now it means that it is time to stop waxing on and on about it all and to just get to work. I hope you have a blessed (and hopeful) day!