As the winter solstice approaches, the longest dark of the year, the truth of the seasons and the cycles of life becomes so clear. We live in a culture that praises linear movement toward goals and the “crossing things off our lists.” Earth-centered traditions from many cultures know the reality that “life goes on,” as one of Howard Thurman’s meditations puts it.

During these turbulent times we must remind ourselves repeatedly that life goes on. This we are apt to forget. The wisdom of life transcends our wisdoms; the purpose of life outlasts our purposes; the process of life cushions our processes. The mass attack of disillusion and despair, distilled out of the collapse of hope, has so invaded our thoughts that what we know to be true and valid seems unreal and ephemeral.”

Thurman called this the great deception.

As I listened to the tributes and eulogies of former President Bush ’41, images of Willy Horton have haunted me. Bush is praised for his civility, for his willingness to make decisions that worked against his best political interests, for the caring and compassion he showed to those around him. The contrast of Bush’s patrician presence with the crassness and greed of our current leadership make it tempting to idealize him.

But I cannot forget the blatant racism that Bush used to get elected. I cannot forget that the whirlwind we now reap was fueled by the hatred on which he relied.

Thurman: “There is no need to fear evil. There is every need to understand what it does, how it operates in the world, what it draws upon to sustain itself. … The real target of evil is to corrupt the [human spirit]. Therefore the evil in the world around us must not be allowed to move from without to within.”

This has been a hard year for many of us. We need this holiday season and the rest and respite it can offer. I need that rest and respite as much as anyone.

I enter this season ready to remember that “life goes on,” that the evil and the hatred and the violence around us will not, cannot be the final word. I am speaking to myself, as much as to you all, when I say that we cannot forget that love goes on as well. The Spirit of Life still moves, within us and among us, even though we have made our own mistakes and compromises a plenty.

You have heard me preach that being a person of faith is not for the faint of heart. Living into the Beloved Community requires not only courage, it requires persistence. The ultimate answer to what Thurman calls the great deception is to keep the power of love alive in our hearts. The Good News is that we have the power to make that so. The even Better News is that we know that power is ours.

Blessings of the season,

Bill