Greater Nashville UU News Update
Jan. 7, 2026
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Minister’s Note
Dec. 30, 2025
“In its essence optimism is … a power of life”
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Beloveds,
Between being a parish minister and being a human living in such interesting times, plus being interested generally in hearing from many different voices, my inbox tends to collect musings from many directions. Sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming & a clear prompt to delete, delete, delete. Other times, one of the many non-profits I half-follow send something that is just right for the moment, like the following excerpt from a National Health Law Program email in which Executive Director Elizabeth G. Taylor, reflecting on the past year and looking for wisdom to pass to others in service of the year to come, draws on the work of several historical justice workers, among whom was one of my favorite Protestant theologians:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who was imprisoned and ultimately put to death for his outspoken efforts to defeat Hitler and Nazism, had this to say from prison:
It is more sensible to be pessimistic; disappointments are left behind, and one can face people unembarrassed. Hence, the clever frown upon optimism. In its essence optimism is not a way of looking at the present situation but a power of life, a power of hope when others resign, a power to hold our heads high when all seems to have come to naught, a power to tolerate setbacks, a power that never abandons the future to the opponent but lays claim to it.
Bonhoeffer was also clear that if one is going to claim optimism, one must act to bring the future we want into being. I say let us claim optimism and together act to bring that future into being.
As we end not just our month of “Choosing Hope” but also the year 2025, I send as a blessing the words with which Elizabeth G. Taylor closed the email I almost didn’t open:
Let us go into 2026 with a fearless sense of hope, and together we will change the way the wind blows.
May it be so.
Yours in faith and the power of hope,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org
P.S. Once again this week, you are receiving this a day early because tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. We’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesdays starting next week.
