Easter hope

What gives a widow hope as she stands by the grave of her husband? What gives a war-torn amputee hope as he lay in a hospital bed? What gives parents hope who have just lost a child in childbirth? What helps parents when they find out that their kidnapped child was found murdered? The answer to all the above questions is the same - hope, Easter hope. Vaclav Havel said, "hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."

Food for Thought

One of my favorite authors is Paula Coelho. "The Alchemist" tells the story of a shepherd boy who goes in search for a treasure. Along the way, he encounters various obstacles. Eventually, he discovers that the treasure is within himself. One of Coelho's other books, "Veronica decides to die.," tells the story of Veronica who searches for meaning in a culture that is based on secularity, routine and conformity. "The Devil and Miss Prym" reflects a village's struggle between good and evil when a stranger enters the village and challenges their sense of right and wrong. In that particular book, he shares some insightful quotes. One is, "God's hell is His love for humanity, because human behavior makes every second of His eternal life a torment." Later in the book, he says, "Man needs what's worst in him in order to achieve what's best in him."
I wonder how we can tease out the above quotes and see their implications!