This week the observance of Lent began, where for the next forty days many Christians will fast or abstain from some type of food or practice in order to focus on Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection. On the other hand, the Jewish people will soon celebrate the exuberant holiday of Purim (Mar 16) which is typically known for its fun.

There are those who shy away from pronouncing its presence, who semantically rename it “moral failure,” or redirect its blame from the individual to amorphous causes—family, society, economics, or ideology.

As disciples of Jesus and children of God, we have a hope that is immeasurable. This hope is not based on our possessions, politics, position, or principles. While human suffering continues unabated, from the international wars that crowd the daily news or even the unreported chronic physical and psychological ailments that many of us quietly endure, our existence is not pointless, nor hopeless.

Yesterday, April 8th, was Holocaust Memorial Day here in Israel, which commemorates the murder of approximately six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis and their sympathizers. It has been nearly 70 years since the end of World War II and the Nazi’s programmatic destruction of European Jewry, yet the shock and horror of the Holocaust still stains the world’s conscience and how we think about evil.

In the past century of Western Christianity, it has been quite common to use the labels, “saved,” “believer,” or “born again.” While salvation, belief, and spiritual rebirth are significant in the New Testament, they were not necessarily how Jesus would most typically preach his message.

For those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, this is the darkest time of the year. The sun has slowly been losing altitude since its summer zenith. The days are growing shorter and the nights longer.

It is wintertime in Israel, which means it is raining. In fact, this past month of January, 2012 saw the highest number of rainy days in one month on record since the founding of the modern state of Israel. During this time of the year, the days are typically short on light because of cloud cover, consistently cold because of uninsulated stone buildings, and undeniably damp because of intermittent drizzle.

Over the past year, we have watched the Middle East landscape blown and shaped by shifting political and populist winds. This “Arab Spring” storm has toppled and continues to blow down autocrats, while tempering the arrogance of surviving regimes. All are reminded that governance and power are not a cudgel, but a privilege—even for kings.

You might say that Israel seems to be in a tight spot right now. Israel’s already tough Middle East neighborhood is only getting tougher. Egypt, renown for its “cold peace” with Israel since the Camp David accords in 1978, appears to be developing into more of a foe than an ally. With the Egyptian people’s popular overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak this past February, the new “democratic” Egypt has allowed, or been powerless to stop, a spate of anti-Israel attacks.

Since the advent of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, the world’s nations now more than ever are being confronted with the symbiotic relationships they share with one another in the international community. Pressures with trade agreements, currency valuation, and debt deals are challenging the integrity of some governments as they struggle with the reality of too many bills and not enough income.

In March, a new book by Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, took the Evangelical world by storm. Even before Bell’s book, Love Wins, was released, some Evangelical leaders were quick to give their opinions about its theological deficiencies, specifically Bell’s allusions to universalism, or ultimate reconciliation between God and all of humanity.