By The Way: May we this Canada Day step forward and ‘dare to hope’

By medicinehatnews on July 3, 2021.

Canada Day this year may hold a bit of mixed emotions for many people. On one hand we finally get to be rid of the restrictions that have both bound and protected us. No one is likely to miss wearing masks, I’m sure that is safe to say. And yet, at the same time, our nation is struggling with the profound tragedy and travesty of the residential school crisis.

I was especially touched this week by the experience of the Prophet Jeremiah. He wrote in Lamentations 3:20-24:

I will never forget this awful time,

as I grieve over my loss.

21 Yet I still dare to hope

when I remember this:

22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends![a]

His mercies never cease.

23 Great is his faithfulness;

his mercies begin afresh each morning.

24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;

therefore, I will hope in him!”

Jeremiah had lost his home, his country, his culture, his friends and family. He says he will never forget something this awful. But, “yet I still dare to hope.”

He could hope because of the faithfulness of God, a faithfulness that is new every morning. Every day by the grace of God we wake up to a new beginning, a new start.

Yes, our country is not perfect. We have failed the weak and the vulnerable among us. “Yet I still dare to hope.”

Yes, our country does not live up to its ideals. “Yet I still dare to hope.”

There are still the poor and disadvantaged among us. “Yet still I dare to hope.”

Because, you see, I know and have experienced the generosity and openness of spirit of so many of our fellow citizens. This is why I dare to hope.

I see people striving for justice and for peace. And this is why I dare to hope.

Above all, I know a God who is faithful, who is merciful, who gives himself to sinful mortals as an inheritance through Jesus. And so I do dare to hope.

May we this Canada day step forward and “dare to hope.”

Pastor Jim Bredeson is Senior Pastor at Victory Lutheran Church

23
-22