Written by Laura Murray, a contemporary author. This is an excerpt from her work “Holding Hope.”
When we encounter those who are waiting in hope or even for hope we often long to make it right, ease the pain, and carry their burdens with them. There are practical help and resources we can provide and give them access to. It is up to them to receive them. Even as we offer practical helps, many times we cannot make it right. We have no power to alleviate the pain, to change the system they are in, or lift their burdens. We can always listen, entering their story where they are with compassion and care. Parker Palmer says, “One of the hardest things we must do sometimes is to be present to another person’s pain without trying to “fix” it, to simply stand respectfully at the edge of that person’s mystery and misery. Standing there, we feel useless and powerless. In an effort to avoid those feelings, I give advice, which sets me, not you, free.” We can choose to hope for others, when they cannot hope for themselves and to meet them where they are. As we practice compassion and care we remain rooted in reality, with a care that listens, and with hope in God.
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. [Psalm 42:11]
