Hope Part 2

 

Hope is more like a muscle than an emotion.  It’s a cognitive skill, one that helps people reject the status quo and visualize a better way.

 

The above quote reminds us that hope is not something we can purchase pre-packaged on the shelf in the store.  Hope is not out there in the world, but also within each of us.  To curate and cultivate hope takes prayer, practice, and persistence.  Too often we look to the external for evidence for hope.  We want the headlines and leaders to “give” us hope.  We want to prove that we are not foolish for hoping.  But, if hope is a muscle, the invitation is for us to live our life as witness to God’s hope.  We are preparing our hearts/souls/stories of our life to receive and make room for God incarnate.  God with us, in Jesus, is an invitation to wake up to a world that has gone off the rails, but that God so loves and longs to redeem.  Yes, I would rather just let God clean up the mess humanity has made of this world, but God always seems to call us a part-takers and collaborators and co-conspirators with the Creator.  So, how do we practice and participate in hope?  There are so many ways, and your way may not be the same as my way. 

 

I am reminded of what Paul says to the followers of Jesus in Rome, “And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,  and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

 

Wait, what?  We boast in afflictions rather than blame or shame ourselves/others?  We boast in afflictions as a pathway to hope?  That is so counter intuitive that I don’t know where to start!  I am not sure the followers of Jesus in Rome knew either.  Remember, Roman officials were suspicious of early Christians, especially because we claim Jesus is Lord/Savior/Prince of Peace ~ all titles the Roman Emperor claimed for himself and himself only.  Early followers of the Way of Jesus faced oppression, defeat, and death.  They knew affliction.  They knew life was difficult and demanding, and the call of God to let our light shine especially when the days grow drear reflects the One in whose image we are created.

 

How might you exercise the muscle of hope today?

How might you reject the status quo of living according to might makes right and your value is based on your bank account, to live the gospel/good news of God’s presence?

 

I invite you to answer these specifically in ways you will show up to volunteer, meetings, talking to family/friends, what you listen to and what you speak out against.  Hope is not for someone else’s responsibility to provide; it is our foundational and formational truth of faith we are infused with by being incarnate of God.  May you find ways to live God’s realm today for the sake of the world God loves.  Amen.