Despite our best efforts, life can be hard. Everything doesn’t always go according to the way we planned. There are variables we can’t control or anticipate. Unforeseen and unpredictable things can happen that prove to be more than a slight deviation or momentary obstacle.

Sometimes the unexpected hits us like a body blow—knocking us to the ground and shattering our sense of stability and security. As we try to get back up, the experience of the unfamiliar, the unwanted can leave us in a state of anxiety and disorientation—of being lost. Feeling trapped, some choose to rage against the uncertainty before them exuding a pessimistic outlook on the future. Others, fearful of what else might happen, resign themselves to indifference—to settle for whatever they have rather than to strive towards possibility.

When life beats us down, when our circumstances go from bewildering to discouraging to desperate, we can choose to become cynical or apathetic. Or we can choose to hope. To hope is to resist giving in or giving up. To hope is to believe this world is not the way it’s supposed to be—that this world is not yet all that it shall become.

Hope like this is more than optimism—some vague sense that things probably will turn out all right in the end. Optimism is limited to how we choose to see our circumstances—that our circumstances, however difficult, could work out for the best. Hope based upon our circumstances is tentative because our circumstances always change. Fortunes rise and fall. Opportunities come and go.

Hope based on whatever we do is false hope because try as we may, insist as we do, not everything is within our control. Life happens—not all of it is good. Stuff goes wrong. We go wrong more often than we get things right.

The hope that endures is rooted in a Creator who authored life not based on chance or uncertainty but instead brought our existence into being with purpose, providence, and destiny.
And even as we break faith with this divine design by looking to make our own luck and attempting to blaze our own trail, hope remains alive. For despite everything falling apart, our Creator promises without hesitation or failure to redeem whatever is lost, to reconcile all that goes wrong and make it right, and to reshape humankind and all creation as it was always intended to be. A life that is eternally predictable in its fullness and abundance for each and every one.

Such hope is extended to us through more than words. Such hope becomes an anchor for our souls in the Word of God made flesh. In the God who comes down through the One called Jesus, hope is personified in love that is offered unconditionally even when it is crucified. In forgiveness that is extended graciously even when it is not asked for. In a resurrection that commutes death to nothing more than a passageway into new and greater possibilities.

In the midst of this life’s weariness is the thrill of hope—a living hope first inscribed at the beginning of all things that seeks to carry us all the way to assurance of a renewed and transformed creation. Its Spirit has been breathed upon us giving us peace to lay hold of and peace to share. It is the greatest means of our resistance against the struggle, suffering, and loss of a world in the growing pains of new birth.

Without this hope, we will be tempted to give up or give into indifference, fear, or cynicism. With this hope, we can look forward. Not ignoring the lessons of the past. Not minimizing the difficulties or challenges of the present. But not losing sight of the assurance of the future—the divine promise of a better and brighter tomorrow.

Such hope is not sustained alone. It must be expressed, it must be practiced together. Only as we perceive ourselves as sharing the same story, only as we understand our contributions as part of that grand narrative, does divine hope become manifest. One step of faith at a time. Each act of love and kindness is cultivated and sown moment by moment. Seeds of hope are being planted, taking root, and blossoming in the fullness of time.

Despite our best efforts, life can be hard. Everything doesn’t always go according to the way we planned. There are variables we can’t control or anticipate. Unforeseen and unpredictable things can happen that prove to be more than a slight deviation or momentary obstacle.

Sometimes the unexpected hits us like a body blow—knocking us to the ground and shattering our sense of stability and security. As we try to get back up, the experience of the unfamiliar, the unwanted can leave us in a state of anxiety and disorientation—of being lost. Feeling trapped, some choose to rage against the uncertainty before them exuding a pessimistic outlook on the future. Others, fearful of what else might happen, resign themselves to indifference—to settle for whatever they have rather than to strive towards possibility.

When life beats us down, when our circumstances go from bewildering to discouraging to desperate, we can choose to become cynical or apathetic. Or we can choose to hope. To hope is to resist giving in or giving up. To hope is to believe this world is not the way it’s supposed to be—that this world is not yet all that it shall become.

Hope like this is more than optimism—some vague sense that things probably will turn out all right in the end. Optimism is limited to how we choose to see our circumstances—that our circumstances, however difficult, could work out for the best. Hope based upon our circumstances is tentative because our circumstances always change. Fortunes rise and fall. Opportunities come and go.

Hope based on whatever we do is false hope because try as we may, insist as we do, not everything is within our control. Life happens—not all of it is good. Stuff goes wrong. We go wrong more often than we get things right.

The hope that endures is rooted in a Creator who authored life not based on chance or uncertainty but instead brought our existence into being with purpose, providence, and destiny.
And even as we break faith with this divine design by looking to make our own luck and attempting to blaze our own trail, hope remains alive. For despite everything falling apart, our Creator promises without hesitation or failure to redeem whatever is lost, to reconcile all that goes wrong and make it right, and to reshape humankind and all creation as it was always intended to be. A life that is eternally predictable in its fullness and abundance for each and every one.

Such hope is extended to us through more than words. Such hope becomes an anchor for our souls in the Word of God made flesh. In the God who comes down through the One called Jesus, hope is personified in love that is offered unconditionally even when it is crucified. In forgiveness that is extended graciously even when it is not asked for. In a resurrection that commutes death to nothing more than a passageway into new and greater possibilities.

In the midst of this life’s weariness is the thrill of hope—a living hope first inscribed at the beginning of all things that seeks to carry us all the way to assurance of a renewed and transformed creation. Its Spirit has been breathed upon us giving us peace to lay hold of and peace to share. It is the greatest means of our resistance against the struggle, suffering, and loss of a world in the growing pains of new birth.

Without this hope, we will be tempted to give up or give into indifference, fear, or cynicism. With this hope, we can look forward. Not ignoring the lessons of the past. Not minimizing the difficulties or challenges of the present. But not losing sight of the assurance of the future—the divine promise of a better and brighter tomorrow.

Such hope is not sustained alone. It must be expressed, it must be practiced together. Only as we perceive ourselves as sharing the same story, only as we understand our contributions as part of that grand narrative, does divine hope become manifest. One step of faith at a time. Each act of love and kindness is cultivated and sown moment by moment. Seeds of hope are being planted, taking root, and blossoming in the fullness of time.