Hope

We may not remember many days. The ones we do recall can be crucial in how we see ourselves and our world.

Every Easter, we remember a curiously named Good Friday - The day Christ was executed. There are people who remember a day every week, when God chillaxed after making our universe.
  

And now February 7 will forever remind us of a day when Victorian bushfires decimated towns; made hundreds homeless and claimed many, many lives.

An entire year, a lifetime, a nation, our whole world can be shaped by a single day. The year 2009 may only be remembered in a hundred years for being when Black Saturday happened.

What days in your life do you remember? They won't all be painful. There's probably a few birthdays; an anniversary; a few important events. There will probably be some painful memories as well.

What do we do when sad days won't go away?

After such catastrophes there will be some who will emphasise a need to remember and remind ourselves of terrible days like this. They will build monuments, establish days of remembrance and re-live stories again and again.

There will be some who will stress a need to move on, to push forward through difficult times and look to the horizon. They will rebuild devastated towns; they will write songs of courage.

And we need both approaches, don't we? After all, those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it, and those who cannot see tomorrow find it hard to live today.

In fact, important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. How many stories did you hear of people who kept fighting or searching or giving or running or praying, even when everything seemed hopeless?

These are the stories that inspire and encourage us. These are the stories that make us cry. There is something in us that yearns to push on through tough times; a part that is stronger and more enduring than any tragedy.

"There is something in us that yearns to push on through tough times; a part that is stronger and more enduring than any tragedy"

Winston Churchill once said "If you're going through hell... keep going." He would know. He suffered chronic depression all through his life, not least of which when he was Prime Minister of England during the dark days of World War II.

Churchill went through hell and kept going, taking a nation with him. Today he is remembered as a hero.

Today in Australia, many believe that our nation is being shaped through the grief we have been recently sharing, with fire, floods and financial crises... but we're still going.

"Important things have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all"

The story of Good Friday is a story of going through hell. And as important things have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all; Easter brings a promise of hope.

Good Friday would be nothing without Easter, a day Christian people remember Jesus rising from the ashes. Easter reminds us that beyond death is a promise of resurrection.

Beyond the agony of Good Friday lay a revolution of love and care, which has now spread across the world and changed history.

Beyond the flame of a bushfire, the land will be green again, homes and towns will be rebuilt, and families and communities will grow stronger together.

Beyond the blackness is the brightness of a new day.

If we're going through hell, let's keep going. This too will pass.