A Power That is Able to Make a Way

When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that here is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Whenever we watch the news on TV, read it in the papers or see a story online we are constantly struck how bad and devastating so much of that news is. Story after story brings tales of destruction, violence, poverty, despair and death. This constant barrage can very easily leave us feeling hopeless and believing that life is nothing more than disappointment, pain and struggle. It becomes very easy to ask …

… What is wrong with people?
… How can they do these things to one another?
… Why do they act this way?When we are bombarded with so much bad news our focus all too easily centers on all that is unjust and wrong with one another and the world. We often talk with people who get stuck focusing on all the injustice and horror and who have an extremely difficult – almost impossible -time seeing beyond it all.Tom remembers working with a guy who every morning would come to work and respond, when any topic in the news or about the state of the world would come up, with either …

Life sucks and then you die, or
This world is going to hell in a hand basket.

Every day. This was always his response. Michael has often heard people tell him, in response to life’s many challenges and dilemmas …The world today is only getting worse. It never gets better.
We are in a downward cycle. Things are worse today than they’ve ever been.

So many people’s outlooks are simply dreary and pessimistic. And so much of the news is based on sensationalism that plays to our worries and fears. That does us no good.But just when we think that only life’s problems and disasters are aired, other stories, simple stories, emerge too. Recently, the news featured a story about a barber who, though because of the economy, has his own struggles with financial security, has decided to use his profession to help others. In purposely deciding to focus on doing something positive, he has opened up his shop on his normal day off to give free haircuts to people who are going on job interviews, people who could not normally afford a haircut. It’s a small gesture in the overall scheme of things. But it is a big help to those who need that help. He provides them with some self-worth and something to feel good about. Another story featured a woman who is retired and who has begun to take the produce from her garden and is giving it away to others who cannot otherwise afford nutritious food. She has decided to give them something healthy that they have a hard time providing for themselves.

These are small gestures. But the fact is, when we choose to look for and see goodness taking place we can find it. We can begin to see light and progress and healing happening if we really look for it. We can begin to see the positive nature of most people if we really want to. For most of the time it is there, it is real and it is trying to come out.

We so often expect or look for the big, “miraculous”, life-altering events to change the world and our lives. But the changes and the positive things occur so much more often in little every day, quiet acts of generosity, grace and goodness. They tend to be overlooked. But when they are added up, the sum of their parts is ultimately infinitely huge and immeasurably meaningful to our lives.

We see these small, quiet acts of goodness every day. We make it a point to be intentional about finding them and seeing them and identifying them. And when we do, we find that our own view of the world changes for the better and for the good. It is then that we have much greater hope that while the arc of the moral universe is long, it indeed does bend toward justice.