Everything Must Change: A Revolution of Hope ~ A Personal Reflection

Blogging so intensely about a simple book, a piece of media that has a slick cover and a PR/marketing campaign that will no doubt add fuel to existing skirmishes between left/right or religious/atheist - well, suffice to say, my therapist Dr. Woodrow would remind me that a choice to do this must reflect something going on in me.  So afford me a post to share the why of this book for me - if you are looking for play-by-play of the book, this would be a good post to skip.

I've dropped hope several times in my life - it is slippery for me, far too easy to lose hold of when I am running fast or turning corners.  I've come to learn that part of this tendency to drop hope is genetic, that a thread of my DNA carries what Daphne Merkin referred to recently as an invisible darkness, a malady that:

that subverts lives, making it difficult to talk to people and impossible to leave the house

My family is full of folks like me who struggle and have struggled with depression, who stalk hope in addictions or avoidance.  This type of hope, fueled by a drink or a smoke or a sprint far away from the darkness, is a counterfeit hope, appearing to be one thing but honestly only digging you in an even deeper hole.  Any half competent ditch digger will tell you, the first rule of avoiding holes:  when you find yourself digging a hole, try to stop.

When I've dropped hope, it sorta acts like mercury - it stays intact while it shatters.  Despite my efforts, I usually can't see this mercury in the darkness, so my thrashing about just moves around globs of the stuff.  The odd thing is how reflective mercury can be when someone turns on a light - you can see the world reflected in all the tiny specs of the stuff.  It's almost blinding when the light first comes on, as if you simultaneously are entranced by the images and long for the darkness as refuge.

Here's one of the things that I've found in my life of darkness and light - sometimes, someone else has to carry the hope for me & you, sometimes someone else has to run the risk that goes along with handling mercury.  The proud alpha male in me despises this, is humiliated by it.  The successful Westerner would rather fix it, buy a "flat-pack" kit and create a receptacle to contain the hope.  But I have found that hope can not be contained or conjured, it is held and invited.

At the core of Brian D. McLaren's new book  is an invitation that he returns to, like a jazz player coming back to a riff or a painter giving herself over to a stroke of the brush.  That invitation is to join a revolution of hope:

“one that offers good news for both the living and dying, that speaks of God’s grace at work both in this life and the life to come, that speaks both to individuals and to societies and to the planet as a whole”

This simple book calls us past empathy and even compassion - those are meaningful emotions, particularly with people who are conversant with sacred texts or heroic figures in past or present.  But they are no match for the looming darkness, for the despair, for the end of hope that accompanies the solution deadlock that comes from our crises in the prosperity, equity and security systems.

God’s grace at work both in this life and the life to come is the work of transformation, the work of justice.  When we are a part of that work, our whole bodies are engaged in a posture of hope, we are zillions of globs of mercury reflecting the Kingdom of God, a beloved community making light visible in the midst of the dark invisible.  Nurtured by grace, hope springs and justice can flourish.

This simple book holds hope, it is 400 pages of mercury - just like mercury, it is concentrated and can be hazardous - but my oh my does it shimmer.  This book is a ray of the Light for me, and it exists because Brian D. McLaren wrote what the Spirit stirred in him and what the world whispered to him.  This is not counterfeit hope, this revolution of hope that McLaren writes about - it has currency in a world that places its confidence in certainty and affluence.

I need this book, this clarion call to believe enough to hope, to see past the temptation to terminate life, to find hope and hold hope in the midst of the darkness invisble.  Hope is not something that exists individually - it is held hand-by-hand, hands reached out and clasped.

My life today exists because of people who have held hope for me when I could not - my glorious wife, my daughters, my immediate family, people in orbits of business, church & culture. So in appreciation for this book & for all who have held hope for me - I reach out my hand, hoping that

EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE

Comments

[ron]

Hey Bob, thanks for the facebook invite to " Revolutionaries of Hope-Everything must Change ", I'm looking forward to being down in Seattle in April. Thanks again for the heads-up. Peace...Ron+

[Mom]

You are truly amazing with your understanding and sharing of words, thoughts, concepts. I love you Bob Carlton!
You always have been and continue to be "a work in progress", a Jewel, and a Child of God.
HOPE and CHANGE are what life lived to the fullest are all about.
Everyday I thank our Lord for YOU, for Bill and for Cathi.
With my love, caring and admiration,
Mom

[Mary Hess]

Ok. You got me with this post. I have to admit, while I've been curious about this book, it's not been very high on my list of things to read. Your simultaneous ability to hold together the paradox of faith, upon which so much of my own hope rests, got me. Thanks! Mary