Extending Grace and Igniting Hope

[Karlena]

I think the phrase “quiet desperation” might be rephrased “silent desperation” because “desperation” is typically not quiet, but an unsettling and turbulent storm of fear, uncertainty, and the sense of being cornered with few or no options. I would say that most people that I come across lead lives of silent desperation and I can deeply empathize with them because I was at the same place at one point in my life. They are disillusioned, in great despair, or like a ship at sea being tossed by the waves as it drifts aimlessly in life, sometimes about to sink. Igniting hope means helping them to not lose heart, but rather to “see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27.13). A manifestation of the goodness of the Lord is the practical help, support, and encouragement that the people of God can offer to those who are desperate and needy. When people see the goodness of the Lord, their hope is ignited or renewed.

[Caleb]

I think Philip Yancey says grace is the last good word because of the context of modern culture. love, hope and Joy are all good things, but to the modern individual they can seem fluid or can have a different meaning as compared to a biblical perspective. Grace is still purely an amazing forgiveness and overlooking of a deserving consequence to a modern individual. Since the everyday worldly person can still understand a biblical grace, it is something we need to convey the most. Not just through words and the telling of the gospel, but by being living examples of something they still recognize as good in the same way we do. We need to speak the language of the modern individual if we want them to understand us, and grace is a common ground that is still understood in the same way.

when David Thoreau said “most people lead lives of quiet desperation,” I believe he meant that although some people show a hesitancy and an undesire for the Gospel, most of them still search for something to find life worth living. There has to be something more than what seems and there has to be a greater cause for all things. The existential thought is ever taking and never giving. We always need to fuel our own fire to find meaning and it wears you out fast; yet people continue to throw logs on the fire instead of letting it go out and accepting the the daunting depression that comes with nihilism. Some eventually do let the fire go out and the end of their life comes rather quickly afterward, but I can’t imagine there isn’t always a struggle before a human being gives up on all hope. Human beings are always searching for something.

Sometimes I wonder God’s reasoning for this world and wonder what his ultimate plan is. If I can be brutally honest I wonder if God even has a plan or even if I am part of it. I’m desperate to know. Naturally curious to test the waters in attempt to pull down the curtain at Oz. Who is behind everything and what is the reasoning for the result of the current condition of humanity. thank goodness we have a God who is faithful, and a savior who knows our every thought and desire. Human beings are naturally desperate, and the only one who can fill tat desperation is Jesus Christ.

[Micah]

One thing that I have noticed in the last few years is a plague of loneliness. I have certainly found, to my own surprise, that sense of loneliness in my own self. In a day and age where people are getting their social “fix” from social media, there is an unfulfilled and often unvoiced desire for deep connections and friendships, that I think is a large factor in what Thoreau calls “quiet desperation.”

Part of the beauty of the church is that we are by nature supposed to bear one another’s burdens and be friends and community that combats this loneliness. I think that in modern Canadian culture, we need this relational and friendly side of the church to be a major part of our outreach, as I have rarely found people that do not seem lonely is some way. Whether it is seniors that rarely are visited, middle-aged people that are so exhausted and consumed by busy work and parenting, or young people that have been raised with the widest and shallowest social setting (through the internet), everybody seems do be lonely and quietly desperate.

[Nate]

I think that Thoreau’s words are quite apt to describe our culture. We are desperate for meaning, for significance, to know that what we do matters. We all have this struggle, but no one wants to talk about it. Its quiet, it is a turbulent storm inside us that we seek to repress or else we may collapse. I’ve certainly felt this at times in myself, especially when I find that I have unconsciously disconnected from God or neglected to give him any of my time.

The gospel though has such power to meet this need. It gives our action meaning by giving us a better story to live into, a place in the kingdom and a task that has meaning. Through his power Jesus can come and calm the storm inside us, and he can replace it with peace and joy in the knowledge of who he is.