Sometimes it is good just to pause and be silent – especially when the world around one is seemingly drifting and spinning somehow in confusing directions. Silence gives time to reflect and to sort out what is important or not important – silence gives time to calm down and find the own midst again before the necessary action. Silence is the cushion to hold a situation close and intimate enough to discern and decide on the way forward.
After 7 weeks of traveling in Europe and America the first I have noticed in all the silence is the fact, that there are so many good people out there – while the newspapers and internet news are full of horrible and anxiety causing matters one has to remind oneself that most people are good people – that most people simply want to have a decent life and a better future for their kids. The mean ones, the trouble makers are a minority – so there is meaningful hope that times will change.
Obviously coming back to South Africa and the load shedding, the corrupt political past and present as displayed by the official inquiries and watching the behavior of politicians clearly having not the good of the nation in mind but their own perks and benefits – it becomes more difficult to remain hopeful for this beloved country and chosen home.
But also here looking more closely one cannot miss that hopefully the phase of naked corruption and untainted fascist rhetoric of some opposition politicians will come to an end and South Africa will be back on a way to prosperity for all and a non-racial society – home for all.
Given, Trump country teaches us that fake news or complete ignorance to sciences and truth can be voted into office in a democracy but the midterm election have shown that checks and balances are still possible and the institutions hold against the madness of self-absorbed politics attempting to spin out of control. The diversity of people within a society gives always a chance that balances are shifted – but also here there is hope that all will come alright after a detour which always teaches mankind a lesson to learn.
It is this hope the time of Advent is talking about – a hope which has its deepest roots in the certainty that our lives are meaningful and that the lives of all those around us are as important and as meaningful as ours. Nobody is first – nobody has a firstborn right – we are all equal as brothers and sisters called to reflect in the season of Advent and then to bear witness of one human race responsibly living on the planet given to us for the time being.
And where is that hope, there is love and there is faith – two other components important to the time of Advent. There is the willingness to work together for the good of all – and when we celebrate Christmas in some weeks – this hope, this love and this faith is manifested in the little baby born and celebrated on Christmas eve. New life means a new chance – in every newborn we can see all the possibilities of life and the sky is the limit – and so is our possibility to assist in turning this world into a good place for all.
Everybody is needed,
every good will be appreciated,
every good deed counts
– let us encourage each other and not despair –
the message of Advent is that there is light at the end of the dark tunnel – closer than we think and brighter than we can imagine.
Filed under: General, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, Advent, silence
God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE 