Hope

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Romans 1:29-31

Sounds about right, doesn't it? For something written hundreds of years ago, it's a pretty apt description of the world as we know it, too. People are always saying how things just seem to be getting worse and worse, but it appears that evil was pretty prevalent back in Paul's day, as well. "They invent ways of doing evil" - that phrase seems so apropos for our current situation; just when you think things can't get any worse, someone figures out a way to take evil to the next level. 

It seems hopeless sometimes - that no amount of good could ever overcome so much evil. I don't know why bad things happen to good people or why it seems that evil is allowed to run rampant and unchecked. And that's ok. (I used to think that I had to have all the answers, that somehow God needed defending. Pedantic would have been a good word to describe me. I know I still have a tendency to slip into that occasionally...sorry :) )

But I do know my Father. He's the God of hope, and I can trust Him. The truth of the matter is that we never have to be without hope. I peeked ahead to the end of the book and found this gem:

"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