{"id":1519,"date":"2019-02-26T06:51:40","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T13:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/coloringoutsidethelines\/?p=1519"},"modified":"2019-02-25T19:31:22","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T02:31:22","slug":"the-protest-of-those-who-hope-alongside-public-school-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/coloringoutsidethelines\/2019\/02\/the-protest-of-those-who-hope-alongside-public-school-strikes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Protest of Those Who Hope, Alongside Public School Strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This morning, my oldest son and I dropped his younger brother off at preschool before heading to the gas station, the coffee shop and his school.<\/p>\n

But today\u2019s visit to his elementary school was different, because we didn\u2019t walk through its doors \u2013 and neither did 467 of his classmates. As you may have seen on the news, Oakland public school teachers<\/a> are on strike \u2026and as a family who benefits from the local public education system, we too have been affected.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I laughed at the irony of it all, for of course (of course, of course, of course),\u00a0<\/em>the strike is not about me, nor is it about the timing that would have worked best for my schedule. Had that been the case, the strike wouldn\u2019t have taken place in my busiest season, when I\u2019m speaking and preaching and entering into conversations like my (first quarter book sales<\/a>) life depends on it.<\/p>\n

Not about me, of that I am certain.<\/p>\n

But the strike is about resistance, about exercising the right to stand up to injustice and to systems that aren\u2019t benefitting those who need it most. After all, as one of my favorite theologians<\/a> writes,<\/p>\n

\u201cResistance is the protest of those who hope, and the hope is the feast of the people who resist.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019m a sucker for hope \u2013 for hope\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>the heart of the gospel.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not about sin. And it\u2019s not about salvation. It\u2019s not about the ABC\u2019s of believing in Jesus so we might secure a spot for our desperate selves in heaven, nor is it about saying the perfect words or praying the perfect words.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s simply about the God of hope \u2013 the one who not only gives hope but who\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>hope.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, when my feet stomp alongside the teachers and support staff who are desperate for a little bit of hope in a broken system, I can\u2019t help but camp out in the land of hopefulness \u2013 for those who resist feast on hope, over and over and over again.<\/p>\n

After all, at the end of the day, hope is all we\u2019ve got.\u00a0And isn\u2019t this true for each of us, regardless of whether we\u2019re standing on the picket lines?<\/p>\n

We hold onto hope when our marriage is falling apart and we cling to hope when loneliness feels like it\u2019s going to eat us alive. We cry out for hope when we don\u2019t know how we\u2019re going to pay our bills and we ask for a little bit of light in the darkness when the injustice of racism and hate continues to claim the lives of our brothers and sisters of color.<\/p>\n

We hope because sometimes it\u2019s all we can do, because sometimes it\u2019s all we have left.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

As for my oldest boy (and the thousands of students in the school district), it doesn\u2019t look like the strike\u2019s going to be over anytime soon \u2013 although I could be wrong. So, while we wait, we\u2019ll continue to dig into this extra gift of time together, into the privilege I have of being able to teeter-totter between an hour of writing and an hour of being with my baby, one hope-filled turn of the clock at a time.<\/p>\n

Or so I hope.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

So,\u00a0m\u2019dears, I\u2019ve got a single question for you. What is HOPE to you?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

*Post contains Amazon Affiliate links<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning, my oldest son and I dropped his younger brother off at preschool before heading to the gas station, the coffee shop and his school. But today\u2019s visit to his elementary school was different, because we didn\u2019t walk through its doors \u2013 and neither did 467 of his classmates. As you may have seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Protest of Those Who Hope, Alongside Public School Strikes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This morning, my oldest son and I dropped his younger brother off at preschool before heading to the gas station, the coffee shop and his school. 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