When learning how to drive, its always a temptation at first to overcorrect in steering by focusing at the road right in front of you. Wavering from side to side, one hopefully and usually learns how the method for smooth driving is to look and focus on the road father ahead. Looking straight ahead allows finer movements, allowing one to focus on the “big picture”, move smoothyly, and move safely.
And its the same way with life. Especially in a time of confusion, turmoil, and uncertainty, we’re tempted to look down at the wavering disturbances right before us and react to each one, a chain reaction that can only us becoming ourselves unsettled, disturbed, and unhappy.
Our final destination towards which we ought to steer and in which we find our hope is reached by passing through the minutiae of what’s right before us, but not by focusing on the minutiae. It’s by looking ahead to the final end and using that to direct and order us in the moment here and now.
A life lived in the state of grace, by one making oneself “right with God” and staying that way is how we find hope in a troubled and seemingly hopeless world. For our hope is not here, but through here. It’s like driving a car. Look ahead, not down. And don’t read the news. Read the Good News. Since that’s the only thing that will truly satisfy.