“No matter how dark it is, all you need is a little ray of hope to overcome it.”

This quote by Indian film maker Anurag Prakash Ray has been at the forefront of my mind the past few weeks.  We’ve certainly experienced our fair share of darkness recently.  Between the senseless violence and death both overseas and even in our own cities, and the vitriolic rhetoric that comes with an election season, it is easy to lose hope and despair.  It would be easy to give up and ask “what difference can I make”?  It would be easy to focus on the darkness and miss the little rays of hope.

Instead, I encourage everyone to focus on those little rays of hope.

Focus on the women heading into an abortion center but choosing life after talking to a pro-life sidewalk counselor.

Focus on the women visiting a pro-life pregnancy resource center and finding out about the resources they need to choose life.

Focus on the abortion centers being forced to close because of lack of business.

Focus on legislative victories such as HB1948, which would ban the brutal practice of dismemberment abortion and change the legal cut-off for abortions from six months to five months in Pennsylvania, moving through the legislative process.

Focus on the parents who have chosen life for their child, despite doctor’s prognoses of challenges like Down syndrome, and recommendations to kill their child.

I recognize sometimes that’s sometimes easier said than done.  When every time we turn on the news we are faced with news of another shooting, or more death and destruction, it is easy to think we’ve lost and it is hopeless and not worth trying.

However, I leave you with this anonymous quote: “Sometimes life seems a dark tunnel with no light at the end, but if you just keep moving forward, you will end up in a better place.”

Our challenge is to keep moving forward through the dark tunnel of a culture of death. We need to continue praying as if it is up to God and working as if it is up to us. If we do that, and focus on those rays of light, we will end up in a better place where life is valued.