Looking around at our city, country, world we get the impression that “things are going to hell in a hand basket,” as my mother would say. The Bible says otherwise. The Bible says that all our acts of kindness and mercy and forgiveness and compassion are like seeds bringing about God’s kingdom, are like yeast which is making the whole loaf rise. Unfortunately you can not rush the seed’s growth or the yeast doing what it does. Things take time. You need to have the big picture to see the incremental changes at work. That is why hope is a Christian budget. “We hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance,” says St. Paul. God has a plan and God never fails.