HOPE is HARD
Hope is HARD WORK! And in this season of uncertainty we find ourselves in, at times the continued search for hope feels crazy and ill-advised. These last few days I’ve been wrestling with this thought about “hope”---what is it, why do we search so hard for it? As I’ve looked at articles, and memes, and posts that have hope as a main or subtopic I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not the only one thinking about/wondering about/searching for/struggling with this topic of hope.
So, what is HOPE, anyway? We often use the word ‘hope’ when we really mean “wish”…..”I hope we win the game tonight, I hope it doesn’t rain, I hope I don’t lose my job during this time”….and while there isn’t anything wrong with using the term in this way, I don’t think this is the kind of “hope” that most of us are searching for. For me, “hope” is one of those slippery concepts….I think I know what it feels like, but I have a hard time putting words around it and what it means. When I looked up the definition of the word, I found two elements of the description of hope that really resonated. The first was this concept that hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. That seems to fit with the use of the word to describe what I also call a “wish”. The second element of the definition struck me…it defines hope as “a feeling of trust.” This is really the heart of the “hope” that I think so many of us are searching for…..what is it that we can trust, or “hope” in or for?
There are so many things that have the ability to take me out of the “hope” game these days. I see discord and disenfranchisement, the lack of conversation without vitriol, “with me or against me” posturing, and when I look at all that together, it could be easy to say “there’s just no hope”…..nothing to trust in. I think we are wired to have hope…I think it’s why we search for it, and why the lack of hope is such a tragic, and dangerous state to find yourself in. The rise in suicide rates points to the importance of having hope (not the wish kind, but the trust-in kind). Someone who can find nothing to hope in or for may find themselves in a place where they see no value in continuing to live. The tragedy of hopelessness breaks my heart, and I wanted to understand this concept of HOPE better so that I could help the people in my life to find and cultivate hope in their lives.
Part of my journey to better understand/explain hope involved some work I was doing with one of my coaches around the idea of hope and the concept of expectancy, and how I identify with those concepts. It was not hard to say that I want to be a person who has hope, but during our session, I came to acknowledge that I want to be a person who lives beyond hope. I want to be a person who lives from a place of expectancy. The idea of living from a place of expectancy was a bit difficult for me. Several years ago I made a personal pledge to do away with expectations (to the extent humanly possible). What I believe is that expectations are “premeditated resentments”. So the idea of living from a place of expectancy sounded like something impossible for me (or at least very difficult when I work hard to have no expectations) and then my coach shared this expansive view of expectancy which I believe is so beautiful. She shared that a life of “expectancy” is not living with a bunch of expectations…..it is living from a place rooted in HOPE. It is the practice of deciding what I have hope in and then living from a place where that is the focus.
So, that got me to thinking….what do I have HOPE in? Or to put it another way, what gives me a feeling of trust? I’ve identified my top 3 HOPE list….maybe these will resonate with you-
I have HOPE in the goodness of people. I believe that people were created in the image of God, which means that at our core, we are good because God is good.
I have HOPE that Love always wins. For me, Love is not a feeling, but it is the very essence of who Jesus was….the desire for the best for others, the willingness to sacrifice, the eyes that could see the possible even when others couldn’t see it.
I have HOPE that we are better together than we can ever be alone. One of my mentors, John Maxwell says the “one is too small a number to achieve greatness”. We do better when we remember that we are all just walking each other home, and we can’t do it alone.
In order to live a life of expectancy, I have to root my life in the HOPE that I have. Living from a place of expectancy sounds simple, but like many simple things, it isn’t easy, especially in this time where there is lots of evidence of things that don’t seem to line up with the HOPE that I have. Which brings me back to my first statement…..Hope is HARD WORK. Hope isn’t an exercise I can do once and then put on autopilot. Each day I have opportunities to focus and behave from a place of expectancy and HOPE or to operate from a place of negativity and despair. Each day I make the decision about whether the choices I’m making line up with my HOPE, or if I’m abandoning my HOPE in exchange for FEAR or HATE or JUDGEMENT. Life is messy, and there are lots of things aiming to take out our HOPE. I believe that if we will stand and identify as people of HOPE and EXPECTANCY, we have the opportunity to bring out the wonderful things waiting in this season, and the next.
What is on your HOPE list?