Sometimes life does not go according to plan. It doesn't seem to work out the way we wish it would. This can be in subtle, quiet ways, or it can be in big, dramatic ways. But there are times when we find ourselves wondering why things are the way they are, and where God is in the midst of it all.

The year was about 475 b.c. and the place was Jerusalem. It had been almost half a century since the first Jewish people had begun to return from their long exile in Babylon. Then there had been much excitement. The air was filled with hope. Yahweh was once again leading the people home and all would be made new. The Temple would be restored. The city would be renewed. But two generations had come and gone and little had changed. True, the Temple had been restored, but it was shabby in comparison with the magnificent work of Solomon which had graced the same spot before the Babylonian invasion. Much of the city was still in ruins. The grand promises of days gone by were beginning to fade. Life was not working out the way people had expected that it would. Hope was giving way to despair.

We know something about how that feels. The world in which we live does not always measure up to our hopes and expectations. In this century we have seen amazing advances in technology which have offered us promises of a brave new world. In areas like medicine, transportation and communication it has often seemed as if there is no limit to what can be accomplished and all of it will enhance the quality of our living. New models of social interaction have also emerged, fueling the dream that the people of this planet might actually learn to live together in peace and cooperation. But the reality seems always to fall short of the promise. Yes, we have conquered some diseases and found treatments for others. But new ailments continue to crop up to plague us, and even basic medical care remains beyond the reach of many people around the world. Yes, we can drive across the state or fly around the world in a day. But often that ability has simply made it easier to wage war more quickly and across greater distances. Yes, new forms of communication have made it possible to instantly exchange thoughts and information with someone on the other side of the planet. But we still fail to understand each other or even trust each other enough to try. It isn't even that life is necessarily bad, at least most of the time. In fact there is much about it which seems very good. It is just that it often doesn't live up to the promise. There are times for us, as for the Jews living in the aftermath of the Babylonian exile, when hope begins to give way to despair.

And there are times when that despair can become very real indeed. In about the year 75 a.d. the people to whom Luke's Gospel was first written understood hard times. It was a time of testing and strife for them. Living faithful lives was not easy or even safe. Harassment by both religious and secular authorities was an experience with which they could identify. Betrayal by family and friends was almost to be expected. In times when God is not only ignored, but actively rejected as a threat, those who seek to follow God can count on hostile responses from the world. In those days following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, the whole world would have seemed to be coming apart at the seams. Questions of "Why?" and "What is the point of being faithful?" would have threatened to overshadow both faith and hope.

We know something about how that feels as well. We who live out our lives and practice our faith in North America at the end of the 20th century are not usually subjected to reactions which are so violent or dramatic as those in other times and places, but we are fooling ourselves if we are tempted to think that the established power structures of our society are any less resistant to the presence and activity of God in the world. It is not easy to live faithful lives. We are frequently faced with situations which conflict with our values, and to challenge those situations or even just to speak out against them presents the very real possibility that we will be dismissed, ignored, rejected or cut off from portions of our society.

And even when it is not directly related to a conflict between our faith and our culture, there are certainly times in our lives when despair threatens to overshadow both faith and hope. A life threatening disease strikes us, or worse, a member of our family. "Where is God?" Senseless violence hits much too close to home. "What is the point of faith?" Divorce breaks a family apart in painful and unexpected ways. "Why have hope?" For all of us there are experiences which seem to be more powerfully destructive than the power of God to hold us together and bring new healing to our lives and our world. A friend of mine no longer has any recipes for hors d'oeuvres because when she got divorced and they were making decisions about who got what, she could not envision a time when she would ever again have enough of a life that she would need such recipes. In big and little ways we can find ourselves in the midst of circumstances which block out the light of hope like a storm cloud blocks the sun.

So, whether it is a quiet failure to live up to promises and expectations, or more active and painful tragedies, whether it is a conflict between faith and culture or between faith and life experience, we can sometimes find ourselves wondering where in the world God is and why life happens in the ways in which it does. Such questions are important, precisely because they are not easy to answer. I believe that it would cheapen our lives and our faith to offer up some simple response to the pains and the turmoils which we endure. The fact is that I am often at a loss to understand why life is the way it is and why God sometimes seems more absent than present. There are certainly moments when the present darkness seems to be the final word. And faith which takes such experiences seriously does not provide us with cheap and easy answers.

But neither does our faith simply abandon us to the darkness. In the midst of the doubts and uncertainties which assail us, we can also find at least glimpses and hints of another, larger reality. We can read the stories of others who have gone before us who found reasons to hope in spite of the very real struggles which they faced. As we face our own dark and troubled times, we can discover a sense of some light flickering just beyond the moment, defying the logic of our own experience, but compelling nonetheless. For the writer of Isaiah 65, it was the courage to begin singing the old songs of joy and hope, in spite of how present circumstances appeared. It was the spark of inspiration which allowed at least a glimpse of a different reality and the beginnings of an understanding of the larger dimensions of God's plans for humankind. It was the recognition that God's ideal goes beyond just a new Jerusalem to a whole new reality. It wasn't yet completely fulfilled, and the answers as to why were not completely clear, but that did not change the prophet's certainty that it was a vision whose time was coming. Appearances to the contrary not withstanding, God was and is both present and active in the world, working to create nothing less than "new heavens and a new earth." For the writer of Luke's Gospel, it was offering the powerful picture of Jesus, in the final days before his death, as his world was breaking apart around him, declaring that even if the whole cosmos came to an end, God could be counted on to be present, protecting and empowering and offering life eternal. There was and is reason to hope.

Hard times are a reality. Darkness can, indeed, seem overwhelming. Despair does threaten to displace hope. But if we watch, if we listen, if we are open, we will catch glimpses of a bright new reality which shines beyond all our present moments. It is hope which finds its source in the God who is even now at work both in our lives and in our world, not just healing our brokenness, but making all things new. May we never lose sight of that hope.