May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13

So yesterday I ran into an interesting dilemma when I showed up at the “Golden Seniors” civic club to present a travelogue slideshow and my projector decided not to work.

• Subject: slideshow of Krakow.
• Medium: slides.
• Content: 126 photographs, scripted, 35-mins.

So, a pretty straightforward presentation. Show up, show slides, talk about slides. I arrived early to make sure everything connected properly. I even did a dry run at home the previous day, using the same equipment.

But by the time the event started the projector and the computer simply refused to work together!

So I had to punt.

However, all my notes (the slide-show was scripted) made reference to visual displays up on the projector screen. Things like, “as you can see from the map,” and “look at the magnificent vaulting,” or “this streetscape is one of the finest examples,” and “can anybody tell me what we are looking at in this image?” or “scenes like this are what overseas travel is all about,” and “I don’t have to say anything because the next few slides tell the story.”

So I had to reorganize my material on the fly and summarize the spirit of 126 slides, morphing them into a series of stories to illustrate the content in words rather than images.

So, rather than show photographs of Andrew and Alicia at the International School of Krakow, I talked about how their commitment to World Citizenship has led their family from Michigan to Kiev to Vicenza to Tashkent to Dresden to Manama and now Krakow.

And instead of an image of me standing in front of a giant steel chair outside the Jewish ghetto in Podgórze, I told the story of the historic Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz and how 68,000 of its 70,000 residents were systematically exterminated by the occupying Nazi’s.

I told the story of Princess Kinga and the salt mines, of legendary Prince Krakus and the dragon, of how the medieval moat turned into a beautiful park, and of how the Polish people’s indomitable spirit and the practice of their faith eventually defeated the Soviet occupation.

I could not show my photographs of Saint Mary’s basilica on Krakow’s Market Square, but I did talk about the animatronic musician who plays his broken tune on the hour, every hour, in honor of the lookout in 1241 who was struck in the neck by an arrow as he trumpeted the alarm and the gates were secured in time. And if there is one thing you do not want rushing through the gates of your city in 13th Century Europe it’s a Mongol Horde.

While the morning event certainly did not go as planned, it was anything but a disaster. Was the point of my visit to have people “Oooo…” and “Ahhhh…” over pretty photographs? Or was it an opportunity to inform, and inspire, and challenge people to think differently as to how we all see this world?

It’s not what happens…

Rebekah has a phrase she often uses in response to the unpredictability and unfairness and the seemingly random disruptions life tends to throw our way. “It’s not what happens to us,” she says, “it’s how we respond.”

Because stuff is going to happen! It just is! Everything from technical difficulties to roof leaks to unexpected surgeries to lost jobs to the death of a loved one to broken relationships….

Regardless, the principle holds. Because how we respond is what happens next, and we can only live in one direction and that is forward. Hope is something we are called to live into.

Hope is not something we wait around for, it is an approach to life.

I like that idea. Hope is not something we wait around for, it is an approach to life. I am not interested in wishful thinking, but to invite everyone into hopeful living.

Because how I respond – how we respond – turns out to be everything – DEREK

Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth. Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things. Love never fails… – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8