This is that time when anything you say can be held against you. It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from. It doesn’t matter whether you were fully aware of the weight of your words. And it doesn’t matter whether you were sick or writhing in pain when you said it.
People will form their conclusion about you. They will feed their anger and their fear and blame it all on you. And they will do these things without even asking your side of the story.
Why ask when they want to satisfy their wrath? Why shatter their prejudices when they are blinded by their self-righteousness?
People will throw stones at you as though you were the most evil person in the world. They won’t care because they don’t care. If they did, they would have given you at least the benefit of the doubt.
But in the name of justice, they do what is most unjust. In the name of truth, they believed in lies.
They disguise themselves as lambs when they are wolves ready to devour anyone getting in their way. They see no hope and so they drive everyone to despair.
Tell me, who is without sin or blemish among you? And who has the right to cast the first stone?
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.” – Matthew 23:13 (NRSVCE)
The thing about hope is that it’s a positive force that shines the most when it’s dark. When everything’s going well, we hardly notice it’s there. But when things go against us, when our dreams fade and when we see no immediate reprieve from our troubles, that’s when hope does its best work for us.
"Where Hope Can Be Found"