Holmes Rolston, III, Templeton prize-winner for his work in the relationship between science and Christianity, tells the story of family suffering. "On graduation from Hampden-Sydney Seminary in the mid-1890's, Rolston's paternal grandfather, Holmes Rolston I, had been called to his first pastorate in Horton, West Virginia. There he had worked among the hardened men of the Allegheny Mountain lumber camps. [He] took with him to Horton his new wife, Jacqueline Campbell.

"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair..."

What carries despair into Christian lives? How do disciples experience despair? Are there any spiritual antidotes for despair?

Carriers of despair:

In Romans 8 St. Paul is helping us 'make sense of, and hence appreciate, the intricate tapestry of human experience and thought.' He provides a map of reality that enables us to discover clues to the meaning of the universe. This map reveals a process of salvation and restoration of the whole creation. He uses the analogy of human aging to help us see the whole creation as a system that is aging, to enable us to make sense of the world around us, as well as our own lives.

The word 'glory' carries with it associations of visible light and splendor - moral brilliance - as in the Transfiguration ("His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light." Matt.17:2), and on the Damascus Road ("I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me" Acts 26:13). The radiance was recognized as a symbol for spiritual glory - the thin place between heaven and earth denoting the presence of God.