Tag: hope

Fanning the Flames of Hope and Love in the Darkness

Post author By Maggie Marcum
Post date January 9, 2026
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I met with a small group of action-minded, concerned people recently. I listened as we went around the room and each shared their sadness, and their anger, over what’s been happening in our nation since the beginning of the new year. As each spoke about our shared grief over military violence in other countries, and in our own streets here in America, each had an undercurrent of hope and love.

That’s what faith does to us. Faith doesn’t say ignore the wrongs in the world. Faith is praying and seeking the face of God, and then acting according to his will. Faith says we have hope in a higher power to shine the light into the darkness we live. Faith says “Here I am Lord,” and means it.

I was also reminded that action in the dark times means different things to different people. Just as each of us who follow Jesus are given different gifts to share and to serve one another as a way to bring the love of Jesus to the world; each of us may be called into action in different ways in this dark time of our nation.

Start on your knees, or whatever your prayer posture is. Soak in the love of Jesus. Sit in the deep love of the Creator. Invite the Holy Spirit to fill you with wisdom and knowledge about what you are to do next. Are you called to be the prayer warrior? Are you called to be the protester on the street? Are you called to be a human barrier protecting the disadvantaged? Are you called to bring food to those afraid to leave their homes? Are you called to clap back against racism and negative comments about fellow citizens?

Answer the call.

Jesus spoke clearly about how God views the way we treat our fellow humans: “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭25‬:‭45‬ ‭NRSVUE‬‬

Th‬‬e same as true in what we do to one another. Are we looking for the face of God in every person? If we are to truly believe that each person is made in the image of God and loved by that same God, who are we to degrade them? Who are we to treat them as less than human? Who are we to disobey the Word of the Lord? And who are we if we fail to love and care for them and to protect them as we would want to be loved and protected? Are we showing the face of a loving God to them?

It breaks our heart when we see professing Christian treat each other in such inhumane ways. It tears us apart when we see a history of violence against one type of person, or one type of religion, that isn’t like ours. It overwhelms us to think that we are on the brink of repeating the cruelty of power-hungry violet leaders in our recent past. We weep for one another and with each other.

And in our weeping, we still have hope. In our weeping, we come to the Lord, confessing our own inadequacies and ungodly thoughts. We come to the Lord seeking forgiveness and restoration. We come to the Lord seeking love and compassion. We fill up all the cracks in our heart with love and compassion, and then we move forward with that same compassion.

Take the light into darkness today. Keep the light of hope lit. Be that light for someone today.

Tags Holy Spirit, God's will, purpose, psalm, Jesus, faith, hope, darkness and light, Chrisitan behavior, lighter walk, social injustice, love like jesus

Living Loving Serving The Lighter Walk

Epiphany: When Light Breaks Through in Love and Hope

Post author By Maggie Marcum
Post date January 6, 2026
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Today is January 6 – the traditional date when Christians celebrate the Feast of Epiphany. There are many traditions and interpretations surrounding this day on the Christian calendar. Epiphany is seen as a holy day of remembrance of the Wise Men’s visit to Jesus, often commemorated by attending church services. Many celebrate it as the last day of the 12 days of Christmas with a Christmas-like celebration of gift giving—similar to the gifts given by the Magi. For some it just signals the date to start taking down Christmas decorations.

Unfortunately, January 6 also has a new meaning in American history. It was a day of violence in our capitol. It was a day of turmoil. It was a sad day in American history. A day that should represent love and hope will forever be remembered in tandem with a day of hatred and violence.

We have a choice today. We who follow Jesus can spend our time rehashing that day, and what it meant for our political system. We can use today as a flashpoint for more anger; whether we believe the actions were righteous of whether we believe the actions were those of insurgents. We can spend our time wrapped in darkness or we can look upward to the light in love for that which is Jesus.

Epiphany is an invitation to encounter the illumination of God in our lives. The path of the wisemen led them to the Christ. It led them to the leader of love and peace. This too can be our path today.

In his Epiphany sermon this past Sunday, Rev. Bill Haley spoke about the darkness in which Jesus was born. A world of hate spread by their leader, Herod. It was into this world that God chose to send a bright light: The true light was coming into the world.”(Jn 1.9). Bill reminded us that “There is Epiphany’s second invitation. The first one is See It. The second one is Be It. Be a child of light.”

This past Sunday, Pastor Gina Anderson-Cloud said because of Jesus, we can “make a difference in our world.“ How can we be the light in the darkness today? How can we follow that light above and help illuminate the world with the love of Jesus? How can we bring hope to the hopeless?

I found recently that as I look deeper into the scriptures and revel in the way in which God loved us so much that he first created us in his image, and when we failed, he sent his son in our image to demonstrate love we could relate to in human form. Jesus came not just to forgive our sins and bring salvation for our souls, he came to model how to love like the God in whose image we are created.

I encourage you to find a community where they are all about the love of Jesus in action. Find a place where you feel the hope of the Holy Spirit to transform lives and to bring the wholeness of a God whose immeasurable love lights the way. Find a place where you can love and serve others and bring the light to them. Be God’s light and gift to others this Epiphany. Allow God’s love to shine through you that lives may be transformed and set free to love others.

“I will brighten the darkness before them and smooth out the road ahead of them. Yes, I will indeed do these things; I will not forsake them.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭42‬:‭16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Tags community, Epiphany, Holy Spirit, hope, image of God, january 6, Jesus, light, love, path, serving others

The Lighter Walk

Returning to Hope this Year

Post author By Maggie Marcum
Post date January 1, 2026
1 Comment on Returning to Hope this Year

Reading the lectionary for this past Sunday I kept returning to the words in John 1:

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

Such a gift of hope we have been given.

I know many of my friends feel as if they have been walking in darkness the past year. It has been a troubling year for many reasons. Some political. Some personal. Some beyond our control and some of our own making.

Darkness can feel so overwhelming. For some it is blanketed in a shame that you can’t seem to see beyond current circumstances. In the darkness, it can be difficult to find hope. And yet it is hope that brings us out of the darkness. It is hope that shines a light on our circumstances and gives us the strength to take that next step forward.

I am obsessed with the sunrise. There is something so incredibly life-giving to me to watch the sun rise as it pushes out the darkness out of the night. Some mornings, the skies are bright and colorful, other days the sun can barely break through the cloud of haze. And yet each morning I get up in time to see that sunrise. Mornings when I sleep in and miss it, I feel like I have missed the best part of my day. It is as if I have missed the renewal of life.

Equally so, sunset with its bright colors reminds me that as we go into the dark of the night, God is still present with us. The slow setting of the sun helps us let go of the day. Maybe that day was full of joy, or maybe that day was full of despair. Maybe we feel we did all the good things that day and maybe we feel the weight of the ways in which we wish we had acted better. And so in the sunset, I find myself letting it go and asking God to forgive me as we walk into the dark of the night, together.

Stepping into the new year, I want to focus on the light that shines even in the midst of darkness. I want to focus on hope and how to bring that hope to others. I don’t want to lose sight of trusting in God. I don’t want to forget to breathe in the Holy Spirit and let her guide me. I don’t want to forget the love that Jesus showed us and commanded us to give to one another. I want to focus on those things instead of the darkness.

We have the power to bring darkness or light into our world through our beliefs and actions. We can either tear down someone or lift them up. We can see only disagreement or we can find common ground. We can wallow in despair over current events or we can take steps to change things for the better. We can bring the light of Jesus’ love…or disregard his purpose for coming to earth as a person to teach us love and goodness and give all hope.

So I encourage you in this new year to have a new season of light. Find people who are seeking to bring light into the darkness and partner with them. Find a program that inspires you and brings you joy, and then share that joy with others. Let the light of the Lord be the light that others see as you let go of the darkness. It isn’t going anywhere, unless you bring light into it. We can sit in despair and darkness and moaning; or we can move towards the light and hope that Jesus brought to us. Let that not go to waste in our day. Let us choose light for ourselves and others.

Tags 2026, faith, hope, kindness, light, lighter walk, love, prayer, purpose

Aging in Grace Transformation Stories

All He Has Done…

Do you ever find yourself in a place of beating yourself up because you just aren’t good enough? Beating yourself up because you still have bad habits that you wish you didn’t have. Maybe you’re looking at the world around you and wishing it were better than it is.

It is so easy to get stuck in that rut of despair, and in a place of hopelessness. It is easy to go down the dark windy road of doubt and disbelief. And yet I don’t believe that’s where God wants us to land and to stay.

I found this morning that I needed to sit back and make a list of all the things God has done in my life. I started with the near term, and that list was pretty long. As I write this, I’m thinking back to my childhood, my adolescence, and my early 20s, It really is but by the grace of God that I’m still alive and healthy.

My life has changed radically because I was willing to ask for help. I was willing to go to another and say I can’t do this. Sometimes that was a counselor, sometimes it was a lay minister, sometimes it was healing prayer. A lot of times it was sitting in the darkness of my room, crying out. Asking to be changed. But it was me asking. It was a desire for my heart to be different.

So what changed in me? Little things started the change. I quit smoking overnight. I quit over eating to fill the void in my heart. I quit drinking so that I would fit in. A change in who I was dependent on, from seeking out relationships with with people (OK, let’s be real, men) to a relationship with God. Getting to know who Jesus is and become willing to open my hands and ask the Holy Spirit into my life as a guide.

I got a soul friend, a spiritual director, a partner in Faith, whatever you wanna call it but someone who I could wrestle with my insecurities and who would hear from the Holy Spirit and talk me through it. And I opened my heart up more to ask God where I need to change.

Someone asked me the other day how long it takes to change and become more like Jesus. I had to remind them, and me, that we are made in the image of God, but we are not God. We will never be perfect. Our journey will never end until it ends. That means for the rest of our lives, we get to have a close dependent relationship with the Lord.

This morning, I woke to a vision of Angels. I never really believed in angels before. I have come to believe that spiritual and human angels led me to an understanding of what God wants to do in my life. Just like Paul, these angles helped break the chains that bound me to behaviors I needed to relinquish. And just like Paul, they led me out of the darkness and into the light. (acts 12:5-1)

When I sit in that light and when I breathe in the Holy Spirit, I can feel a presence unlike anything else and I know that God isn’t finished with me yet. I am thankful for what he has done, and trust that there is more to come. I’m not as young as I used to be, my body doesn’t jump as quickly; however, my heart still does. I’m still asking how he wants me to change, and working on that change. I’m asking what he wants me to do in this part of my life, and that gives me energy and excitement.

I encourage you to read Romans 8. Learn about living life in the Spirit and God’s desire to transform our lives- together! One little word of advice from Paul:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭28‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

Peace be with you friends.

Tags change, forgiven, God, healing, Holy Spirit, hope, Jesus, recovery, redemption, Romans, second half life, transform, transformation

Living Loving Serving

The Sad Reality of Homelessness

Post author By Maggie Marcum
Post date November 30, 2022
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I sat tonight listening and praying for several hours as my community discussed the issue of homelessness and moving toward residential living. It is a complicated and heartbreaking story- one that touches us all. There was a clear desire to bring hope to the hopeless and to love the lost.

I listened, I prayed, and then I wept; I cried all the way home. I remembered my own story of homelessness and food insecurity. I remembered my husband whose addictions led him to live in the woods. I remembered my friends who sat helplessly watching family members and friends living that life with only a hint of hope remaining. And I cried some more.

Tags addiction, behavior, give back, homeless, hope, recovery

Transformation Stories

A Hope I Can Trust

Hope is such an encouraging word. We say it all the time: I hope you feel better, I hope you get the job, I hope it all works out. Dictionary.com defines it as: “to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.” We keep hoping “to feel that something desired may happen.” We don’t know that it will, but it could happen and in saying “I hope,” we mean that we will wait together for whatever is to come, anticipating the best outcome.

However, there is a different kind of hope we discover this time of year – a deeper spiritual hope. This is an extended level of trust, often based on past spiritual experiences or shared stories. It is a hope placed in the person of Jesus Christ. It is a prayer we offer to God, believing in our own spirit, that God will manage the details as we walk with him.

Tags advent, change, finances, hope, Jesus, joy

Transformation Stories

Life Trees

Dying drying trees

Brown and lifeless

Rebirthing trees,

Waiting for new life?

Strong foundations

Branching off, crisscrossing,

Intersecting each other

New paths

Giving way to

New life.

Solid trees, grown upright,

Branches reaching upward

Unity in growth

Brown transformed to green

Renewed

Replenished

Beckoning us..

Foundations rooted

Rich soil

Growing, dying, rebirthing

All reaching up

All branching out

All rooted in hope

Watered in love

Growing through faith.

Maggie Marcum

Tags faith, God's love, hope, inspiration, love, poem, poetry, retreat, spiritual growth, transformation, trees

Living Loving Serving

The Empty Arms of Motherhood

Post author By Maggie Marcum
Post date May 8, 2016
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Mother’s Day can be a painful day for many women.

It is a reminder of a child lost.
It is a reminder of a child given up in adoption.
It is a reminder of a child never born.
It is a reminder of broken relationships between a child and a mother.
it is a reminder for some couples of the child they are desperate to have.
it is a reminder for some singles of the life they have without loving their own child.

And for some it is a day of defending their choice not to have children.

For all the joy that Mother’s Day may bring to many women, some find themselves in a sad spot today. They may not look forward to walking into church and seeing others around them sitting with their children and celebrating the day. They may feel uncomfortable when someone wishes them a Happy Mother’s Day when they don’t feel happy at all.

If you are one of these women, I want to remind you that you are loved by a Father who understands your pain. He too lost a child. He has a plan for your life regardless of your status as a mother. Perhaps he is calling you to come along side other women and encourage them in their sadness. Maybe he is calling you to walk with other singles and encourage them of their value as a woman.. Maybe he is calling you to work with children and fill the void you believe you have by sharing his love with them.

God does not leave us in our circumstances without purpose. You are a strong woman made in God’s image and you have value and worth in this life.

You may carry the memory of loving a child gone and that is a precious gift to give to others.

You may not be at the point of having children yet and can use this time to support others in a way God is nudging you.

You may have children living apart from you and today you can reach out and remind them that you love them, no matter what has happened in the past.

I want to encourage you today as you run into women who you know are in these circumstances to love on them. Genuinely love on them. Maybe pick up a little bunch of flowers on your way out and give them to a special lady and remind her that she is special and is a beloved child of God herself. Let us use the love God has given to us to lift up others in sharing that love today.

Happy Lovely Wonderfully Made Women’s Day!!

Tags abortion, daughter, death, father, hope, Jesus, mother, Mother's Day, motherhood, single, single mother, son, strong women, worth and value

Boomer Living Coaching Tips and Exercises Living in Singleness Living Loving Serving

Grief Life

We planned for our future.

We had a vision for our lives.

Together we would do this.

Then one day;

You were gone.

The future we planned no more.

The vision detached,

Distrupting my life.

No more together adventures.

Me alone

The world turned upside down.

New plans to imagine.

New routines to make.

New life to find;

With others.

Stuck between what was,

What is, and yet to come.

Pulling myself forward,

Out of the dark;

Into the unknown.

Looking for his plan in this.

Holding onto faith.

Yearning for love.

Hiding from tears.

Praying for me.

Resting in his will.

Trusting in his love.

Shattered pieces healing.

New life emerging;

Breathing…living

Finding new purpose.

Walking a new path.

Willingly restored.

Stepping forward.

From grief to life.

Tags boomer, community, death, faith, grief, healing, hope, new life, poem, purpose, restoration, single, widow

Living Loving Serving

A Day of Remembrance: 9/11 Thoughts

Post author By Maggie Marcum
Post date September 11, 2015
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This morning I woke with that same somber cloud of quiet sadness that has hung in the air every September 11^th since 2001. I don’t know why, but going to bed last night I thought this morning would feel different from all the other years. Fourteen years has not changed anything. I still want to cry and I still have trouble believing what happened as I, and millions of others, relive the hours and days of that tragedy.

Funny the things I remember most, beyond watching the news unfold around me. I remember wondering if I should go to work only to get the call that we were evacuating to be safe. I wondered how to explain this to our daughter because we would have to tell her. The Pentagon was just a few miles away and well, everything was changed. We called friends and family to make sure they weren’t in the Pentagon that day and we called simply to say, “I love you.” I remember the silence that evening more than anything else. Living outside of Washington, DC the sky was always full of planes flying over and cars rushing between work and home and sports fields. Not that night. All we could hear were fighters flying over for our protection. That night we drove to churches to pray. We walked the streets in dark quietness because all the stores were closed. As a nation, we simply shut down.

In the days following we were changed people. We cried openly at work and in the grocery stores, and people placed their hands on our shoulder because they understood. We let people pull out in front of us and nodded in shared grief. We held onto our children and wondered if it was safe to let them continue to live. We were kind and gentle with each other as we processed what was happening in the places near to us. We came to understand that we had to get back up and live our lives to show the world and the people who wished us harm that we were stronger than them. We had to show we were a nation united and that together we would recover.

As you head out today under the cloud of such enormous loss, I pray that you will remember who we were for those few days after. We are still kind, compassionate, praying people. We can still set aside our political and religious bickering to find a way support each other. We can still let someone pull out in front of us and not blow our horn when someone doesn’t move as quickly as we think they should. We can still help our neighbor if they are struggling. We can still ask a stranger if they are ok. We can still gather together, hold hands, and pray for our country. We can rise up from the ashes of that day and honor the memories of 9/11 by being good to one another. Who knows, maybe today could begin anew a nation where we turn off the TV and turn to our families. Maybe today we will pick up the phone and check to make sure a friend is doing ok. Maybe tonight we will remember to say prayers with our kids and tell them how we love them. And maybe tomorrow we can carry on as if every day is the day after.

Dear Lord, out of the shadows of our grief and sadness may we find new hope and light. Lord, make us a people who care for one another, who help each other, and who pray for our nation. Lord help us to remember out of evil, good will prevail. Make us a people of compassion with giving hearts that change our neighborhoods and that brings renewed joy and hope for the future.

Tags 911, compassion, grief, hope, neverforget, prayer, recovery, remember