So many of us feel a sense of discontent... but there is always hope

"Peter has always had everything except the things he really wanted".

This is the voice of the fictitious Duchess of Denver, Lord Peter Wimsey’s mother. Peter Wimsey is the lead character of Dorothy L. Sayer’s detective novels and short stories, a young man who grew up in the height of privilege, as an early twentieth-century younger son of an English Duke.

I am sure that many of us can resonate with Lady Denver's quotation. Many people, even in the wealthy West, feel that life is against them. There are greater levels than ever of anxiety and despair reflected in social media, opinion columns, news articles and the sheer statistics of the demand for mental health services. What used to be the case for less than five percent of the population is now being described as the normal experience of a vast majority - such as being diagnosed with a disorder like social anxiety.

Still privileged

But if we are honest, we can still recognise that we in the West have such a lot: more wealth than any other human society ever, better health, longer lives, more time and labour-saving technology, social services, and so many social goods available to the vast majority. What used to be unthinkable luxury for the many is now, truth be told, normal and general experience.

Yet life is still hard – let us not be unrealistic about that. We still fail to have what we really want, even if we’re unable to articulate exactly what that is. And often we can. Whether it’s healthy relationships, or life satisfaction, or interesting work, or achievement or whatever else that we want but think we don’t have, it can be very easy to feel that for all life’s goodness, it’s just hard to live without that thing we really want. We can afford a house, just not the one we want. Or the garden, or the lifestyle. Or the holiday. Or the family.

Still hard-pressed

Because everyday life, even in this luxury we enjoy, is hard: doctors appointments are not available, post offices close for lunch, taxis do not arrive, it rains. And that was just this week.

So we can agree with Lady Denver. It is possible to have everything except the things we really want - and that has the ability to taint all the other good things we have.

Dorothy L. Sayers could perhaps agree, too. She, after all, enjoyed a very privileged life. She was born to the English upper middle class with all the advantages of physical comfort and elite upbringing that that afforded. She went to Oxford, still an unobtainable dream for many, and was even in the first year of women to graduate with a degree – an astonishing privilege at the time. She had a strikingly successful writing career, a famous author within her lifetime. Yet her biography tells of a life of dissatisfaction and struggle, for all sorts of reasons. Life can be very good, and very hard, both at the same time.

Sometimes it feels like it would almost be better to have a disaster - then at least there would be a reason for feeling terrible. One can bear up courageously under disaster. It’s the ongoing disappointment of everyday life that is really hard to take. The experience of drudgery, of life turning out to be not just not-Hollywood, but not even living up to our own more modest dreams. Being alive is hard. Sometimes it feels like the best we can say is, it could be worse.

Still hopeful

Except that is never the best we can say. Not those of us who know Christ, anyway.

Not when we have a functioning body and wealth enough to eat, every day. When we have jobs or pensions or social safety nets. When we have free healthcare. When so many of us have cars and houses and garbage collection. When we are saved from the fires of hell and can look forward to living with God forever, in paradise.

The Lord Peter Wimsey quote doesn’t end there.

"Peter has always had everything except the things he really wanted... and I suppose he is luckier than most".

We are much luckier, or to be theologically correct, more blessed, than most. Another Peter, the apostle, asks us to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that we have. We do have hope. Let us, therefore, remind ourselves of that, especially when life can look so hopeless. Let us make sure that the people around us can tell that we have hope, so that they will ask us about it.

Ordinary life is hard. But it will get better. Be hopeful.