Does God write straight with a crooked line, will Good trump Evil, or are we simply to give up hope?  These are questions that so many of us are wrestling with right now. 

Recent history can be disheartening: four-plus years of a concerted effort to destroy the president.  Media, moguls, and mega-donors united in what seems like a conspiracy of epic proportions to destroy our Republic . The federal justice system is playing rope-a-dope, quashing every single "new hope" because the FBI and Justice Department never even start investigations into leftist malfeasance, or they drag on forever, or they just disappear like sand through dry fingers.

Now we have swirling and conflicting information about this election.  There's so much that we see with our own two eyes, and we cannot understand how "they" can't see it.  In this case, "they" are our friends, our families, our neighbors, elected officials, the press.  Deliberately or not, they are blind.  But we see all the evidence and cannot understand how it's possible we won't prevail.  And then we see that the cogs of the leftist machinery are so well oiled and the clock ticking so loudly.

We tell ourselves not to despair.  We tell ourselves to be patient because all will come out.  We tell ourselves to trust the brave few who are putting up the good fight against seemingly insurmountable odds.  But the hole in our psyche through which the hope leaks out seems to be getting bigger the longer this interminable "process" drags on. 

Personally, I was never trained to have faith.  I'm trying to find some now, but, living in my California leftist paradise, the political mess leaves me isolated and estranged even from my children as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches.  I'm further isolated because I must wear an absurd muzzle over my face and see everyone else with the same.  I have never felt more alone, or more hopeless.  I know I must change this attitude to survive.

But just when hope seems gone, when my personal situation and the political situation overwhelm me, I look up and see those who are putting all their efforts into the fight as the vanguard for all of us.  Trump, Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Lin Wood, and so many others are not giving up.  I am awed when I see their determination to rally on through the frustrating strictures of the law and the endless rules of gamesmanship, all the while keeping up their spirits and fighting for all of us. 

I have decided to do what I can to find the positive and to create more of it wherever I can.  My life is that of a simple retiree, but I'm determined to work hard to find that kernel of actual hope that the Trump fighters embody and to expand on it as much as possible.

I must start by taking small steps to make my own life more positive.  I need to force myself out of my negative thoughts and model the attitude I want to achieve.  For me, it's literally one foot in front of the next.  I took a long walk this afternoon, mask off.  Yes, I detoured into the street when I ran into people to maintain my respectful distance, but hey, I smiled at them even though they were uptight and incredulous-looking that I walked "naked." 

I've offered to cook Thanksgiving dinner for some friends and drop it off.  They, like us, are alone this holiday.  While I'd prefer to share the meal in person, they are not willing to go that far.  So I will share Thanksgiving as I can.

I realize every small step in the right direction will have an effect.  If we all take small steps, they will accumulate and, somehow, lift us as we do so.  I don't know much about God's plan, but I do know it's far too easy to wallow, and I must take the harder road.  All of us that do so will inevitably create something richer and more rewarding than the mire below us.

Image: Sun shining through clouds by Louis Bauer.  Free to use.