A big issue that has haunted me for years is never knowing what I should do. Let me explain. Starting in my high school years I have often wonderd what I should be doing with my life? This question has always been on the backburner of my mind because whatever I ended up doing left me wanting and unsatisfied. I have on many occasions felt that working in a church, running my own small business and now with the hopes of grad school right around the corner, have often times felt like 'the silver bullet' I have been looking for. But for some reason left me unsatisfied with the direction it was pointing me in. What I have added to life in place of finding where my 'deep gladness' resides has been a temporary break from the pressure and guilt sometimes associated with 'not having it all figured out'. Just 'being' have been the most rewarding times in life, especially when 'not having it together' is all too familare and all too common. There seems to be a underlying thought in Christianity that says you need to be moving forward and growing, and if your not, your essentially not living the life God intended you to live. I'm sure if your like me, have experinced the unsatisfaction, on one level or another, the church has put forth and called it genuine hope.

With these thoughts as a backdrop, Wright has brought to light many aspects of hope [mostly neglected by Christianity], offering a peaceful place to live. Not through guilt or condemnation but a gladness in the peace and accaptence and redemption of 'putting things to right'. There is a vast difference that exist in the hope of being 'removed' from this life to the hope of this life being redeemed. It is that redemption where justice, mercy and reconciliation are given a fresh hope to a neglected life.

In America, for some reason, we enjoy a two party system. In politics we have the republicans and democrates, in morals we have liberal and conservative, and in Christianity we have fundamentalist and progressive. The problem with a two party systems is twofold; the third option is neglected and the corruptability of the two options is traced with ease.

I want to speak on the third option being neglected. It has been my experience coupled with my theology, that God has worked and continues to work in the third option. Without falling into the trap of being labled as 'fundamentalist or progressive' we become free to work where 'the worlds deep hunger and our deep gladness' co-exist. The ideas of justice and mercy no longer become excuses to keep God at arms lenght or allow us to become so consumed with a social gospel that forgets the relational meaning God intended us to enjoy. The third option then becomes a viable option offering a peaceful place to live.

Once we make the leap into the deepness of the third option the 'hurry-ness' of getting to the next stage of our spiritual journey becomes filled with hope and not guilt. The one way mirror of the two party system is changed into a clean slate of glass that allows us to see where Gods work and our deep gladness exist. The barrier will still exist until God finally 'puts things to right' but the clarity that becomes apparent in the third option allows for grace and peace to everyone who experiences injustice, opression and a less quality of life.
I would like to end by saying these are just a collection of thoughts on my interaction with the book 'surprised by hope'. The thoughts are mostly incomplete and are in waiting for there full fruition. Also, my intention is not to discedit a tradition, that I believe has gotten it wrong in the past, but to bridge the gap of past and present and in no greater place than my own life.
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