Room to Be Surprised

I sometimes hear pundits or other cultural voices say something like this: “At my age, nothing really surprises me any more.” But that’s not what I hear from CLF members, nor what I experience myself. We are saying: At every age, until the moment we draw our last breath, there is still room to be surprised. There is still room to learn, to grow, to open, to accompany one another on our journeys, no matter where those journeys may lead.

Hope is not for the naïve, for the young, for the unseasoned. Hope is always beckoning to us, no matter whether we can see it, no matter whether we can put it into words; no matter whether it comes in the form we expected it. Hope pervades all of life, if we have the courage to see it. And once we know it, we feel no choice but to offer it to others as a gift.

BY REV. MEG RILEY, SENIOR MINISTER, CHURCH OF THE LARGER FELLOWSHIP TO READ MORE