Week after week, we can take on the biggest issues we face as a society -- from continuing racism, mass incarceration, inequality and poverty to gender violence and human trafficking, climate change, ISIS -- and just try to be hopeful.
Or we can start by going deeper, to a more foundational and spiritual understanding of hope -- rooted in our identity as the children of God, made in the image of God, as the only thing that will see us through times like this.
I believe we should start there. Because the biggest problem we face -- the biggest enemy at the heart of many of the issues we must address -- is hopelessness.
And perhaps the most important thing the world needs from the faith community today is hope.
I believe that hope isn't a feeling, a mood or a personality type. Rather, hope is a decision, a choice we make because of this thing we call faith.