In his book A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens opens with the line: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” Dickens, who wrote his book in the mid-nineteenth century was certainly commenting on the moral and political climate of his day.
Today we could still say the same. At times the darkness seems to be overpowering light. But yet life for us is not so difficult that we cannot get through it. Perhaps we all want the “good times” to return again. But what were the good times? World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, were those years so wonderful? The loss of world leaders in the 1960’s, the despair of the black Americans under Jim Crow laws, the anti-communist movement under Senator McCarthy – many of us can remember these “good times”. But just as in The Tale of Two Cities we can find the good times in the bad times. It is a journey of our spirit of joy that enables us to move forward with a glimmer of hope.
When darkness seems to be overpowering the light we could enter into despair, but in our Spirit of Joy given to us by God we realize that God is walking with us on our journey of life. God is living with us and among us helping us to tap wisdom in the time of foolishness. We find hope in our wisdom gained from the past, we move to a time of Pentecost when the Spirit comes among us. It is as Jesus promised at his ascension: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matt.28:20