Today, as in the past, as we look at the world, we sometimes feel drawn into a whirlpool, unable to extract ourselves or move.
Messages and news of war, atrocities and violence, not just far away, but all around us. It’s enough to make you feel sucked into this sense of crisis, despair and darkness.
So what can faith, trust in a God, do for me at a time like this? How can I keep hope alive?
I don’t believe that life should only be lived with a focus on eternity, or that everything should be problem-free and heavenly. But I do believe that faith leads us to intervene here and now for justice, peace and the health of this world, and to rise up against exclusion. Each person is so important, each moment lived, through our connection to each other, to nature and to God, is worthwhile. I believe that faith brings this beauty of sincerity to the world.
But above all, it brings the confidence that every situation, every person, can move, change and turn away from evil, because God, with the breath of his Spirit, can intervene. Nothing is ever set in stone, ruined and unthinkable, but bears the hope of something better, something good, something beautiful.
God, in His love, seeks to console the wounded soul, and this moves it. I believe he also tries to move souls that are asleep, without empathy, anaesthetized, so that they look again at the situations around them and intervene on behalf of others.
For every good gesture and word brings and shows this hope, removes the absurdity of evil and brings life. The hope that faith gives is a bulwark against evil, hatred and violence. It’s a light we want to move towards every day. Grace!
Grace helps me accept my limits. It loves me in my defeats. It reminds me every day that I don’t have to save myself. It allows me to be a being in need.
Grace is a gift. In Greek, charis. A talent. Something I can’t explain by work and price alone. What is a gift, I cannot buy. It is granted to me.
Grace is solidarity. Community solidarity. The supplement of kindness.
Grace is the right to become another person again, to have the right to become. Not to be forever fixed on the past. On what I have done and allowed to happen. Grace opens the future. It gives you time.
Grace is much more than a personal encouragement. It is a global promise.
Grace is God’s commitment to this world.
Born into a Methodist family in Winterthur, Iris initially worked in the technical and industrial fields before turning to theology. A pastor since 2019, she is committed to an open, inclusive Church in dialogue with society. Today, she actively contributes to the life of Village Mosaïque, driven by her faith, her joie de vivre and her taste for encounters.
