New Name

Choosing titles for my posts has never been my strength. My wife is the namer in the family. My blog's name has always felt just a bit off too. It was "Walker's Musings" for a few days, then "Well, Duh" for a few months, before I settled on the more positive "Delivering Hope".

On the plane trip back from Chicago, I finally finished Jim Wallis'

God's Politics, and he has quite a bit to say about hope.

Prophetic faith does not see the primary battle as the struggle between belief and secularism. It understands that the real battle, the big struggle of our times, is the fundamental choice between cynicism and hope. ...

First, let's be fair to the cynics. Cynicism is the place of retreat for the smart, critical, dissenting, and formerly idealistic people who are now trying to protect themselves. They are not naive. ...

Ultimately, cynicism protects you from commitment. If things are not really going to change, why try so hard to make a difference? Why become and stay so involved? Why take the risks, make the sacrifices, open yourself to the vulnerabilities? ...

Perhaps the only people who view the world realistically are the cynics and the saints. Everybody else may be living in some kind of denial about what is really going on and how things really are. And the only difference between the cynics and the saints is the presence, power, and possibility of hope. And that, indeed, is a spiritual and religious issue. More than just a moral issue, hope is a spiritual and even religious choice. Hope is not a feeling; it is a decision. And the decision for hope is based on what you believe at the deepest levels--what your most basic convictions are about the world and what the future holds--all based on your faith. You choose hope, not as a naive wish, but as a choice, with your eyes wide open to the reality of the world.

And so it is that I came to the conclusion that hope is not mine to deliver, but rather ours to choose.