Why Smuggling Hope?

Smuggling hope began out of a desire to create a grassroots recording that emanated from image and word. The importance of image is staggering these days for all the wrong reasons. The truth is... we think in the images that we derive from words. The two are ultimately linked and build upon each other. The strength of an image is both created and enhanced by words. The strength of a word is both created and enhanced by images.

Smuggling conjures up the image of a dark figure on a dark night in a dark place acting out an even darker, more sinister scheme. Yet Hope creates a brighter image. One of relief and release...one of dispelling the darkness conjured by the previous word. The words and images wrestle with each other creating the struggle that is...finding and keeping hope.

Life is struggle. The journey is hard and often fraught with peril and pain. So many decisions...so little to go on. So many questions...so few answers. These are images that, if we’re honest with ourselves, are the ones with which we’re most familiar. At least in our quietest moments. These are the words that seek to rob us of our hope and replace it with fear. This is the dark night that our smuggler finds himself fighting in order to deliver his coveted cargo.

And so we arrive at the grand metaphor of our Savior’s struggle to deliver the hope of all hopes. Smuggling Hope is about the words and images conjured by a God who is so in love with us that He literally sings for joy over us. He is enraptured at what we have become in Him. Smuggling Hope is about the words and images conjured by the realization that this great grace is given in spite of who we were and are.

There can only be one response to this covert, subversive act...total surrender. This great lover of our souls is worthy of everything. He has smuggled to us our very breath. How better to use it than to weave, as best we can, our own images and words in creativity, passion and thanks.

Peace