When there is no hope, it is inevitable that there will be hate. When hope is lost, hate will live. It will not simply survive, it will thrive, and it will grow.
If those, of all groups and people, before me could hope amidst dehumanization, devaluation, murder, and absolute evil through the tools of being traded like chattel, Jim Crow, redlining, and other instruments of inhumanity, so can I.
At the root of hope is love. It is here, at love, that all become brothers and neighbors. True love knows it is not just the mistreated, devalued, and dehumanized that are suffering but it is too those in power and positions that are suffering. The mistreated suffer dark days. Yet, those who are mistreating suffer dark and blackened hearts. Wickedness and evil consumes them.
Whether we’re speaking of Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, or Martin Luther King Jr., we’re speaking about the light they displayed amidst gross darkness. All three worked diligently to tear down the walls and partitions that separated those they served from those who had what they needed. All three preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ not simply with the words of their mouth but too the meditation of their hearts and the lives they lived.
All of us fall into one these three types of demonstrations, or at least we should. Hope and love should be seen in Salvation of the Gospel, the Justice of the Gospel, or the Benevolence of the Gospel. This is what hope and love does. It saves, breeds justice, and is benevolent. This is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. It is hope, justice, and benevolence.
The Bell Reader 