The Only Road to Hope is Through Trouble
by Rev. Meg Riley
We want to accept the invitation to live hopeful and joyful lives! And yet, when we open our hearts to joy, we also open them to sorrow, fear, and anger. It turns out we can’t inhabit one emotion fully without receiving them all. How do we accept the invitation to be fully alive without tipping our small boats over into the ocean of emotion?
Rev. Meg Riley is the Senior Minister of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF), a 3500 member UU congregation without walls which includes over 600 prison members and people all over the world. Previously, Riley was co-creator and founding director of the UUA’s Standing on the Side of Love program, director of the UUA’s Washington Office, GLBT office, and Youth Office. She has served on the national boards of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Justice, the Interfaith Alliance, and Equal Partners in Faith. She is founding president of Faith in Public Life. After a decade in Washington DC, Riley relocated with her family to Minneapolis, where she loves the lakes and her garden. Please visit CLF’s website at QuestforMeaning.org.