Hollow Optimism with Pessimistic Expectation (HOPE)

HOPE. It’s a waste. Fickle. Flimsy. At least that’s what I used to think. Hope wasn’t the rugged, mighty, power-releasing faith that I read about in the Gospels and the book of Acts. As I read through the gospels, Jesus never said much about hope. Faith yes, hope, no. For much of my life, (until last week to be honest), hope was synonymous with wishing.

“I hope my teen gets up on time”. I wish Peter would take school seriously.
“I hope my husband comes home in a good mood!” I wish his boss wasn’t so critical.

Often I used this four-letter word, hope, to mask my sincere frustration and pessimism. My version of hope, aka wishing, was full of sincerity, but it was baseless at its core. Unsubstantiated. Hollow optimism. I mean, how many candles did I blow out as a child and none of my wishes came true? “Hope” left me feeling sad inside after I blew out each candle.

[image error]

Jen Miskov, whom I consider one of my writing mentors, brought the topic of hope to a group of workshop alumni last week during our online meet-up. She encouraged us to activate our skills by writing about hope. Hope? C’mon, Jen! Let’s do something meaty like the promises of God, or speaking to our mountains, living on fire for God or some other cool Biblical concept laden with Christianese! But no. She said one word: hope. “Write about hope”. Why?

[image error]

“Many people need it right now”.

As a mom, I “hope” for a lot of things. The audio on the laptop to work during my kids’ Zoom classes. My newly sprouted veggies not to freeze to death at night, or more importantly, a good night’s sleep. But these are desires that don’t propel me to cry out to God in frantic desperation…well, the desire for solid sleep does, but if the audio acts up or a squash sprig gets freezer burn (one did!) then I troubleshoot or plant a new seed. As I studied about hope, I realized that I had the wrong word in my head. I used the word “hope” when I should have used the word want. I want the audio to work, but if it doesn’t it isn’t the end of the world. Wants are sincere, but often shallow. Hope is quite substantial.

The God of hope. Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Wow, ok. Hope has to be important if it’s a descriptor for our Most High God. And we, as believers are supposed to abound in hope?! Abound = overflow, flourish, be alive with. God is serious about this. He sends His Spirit to endow us or infuse us with hope.

What is hope? Time to go to BlueLetterBible.org. Interesting. Hope isn’t like wishing at all. It seems as meaty as faith. The words confidence and assurance catch my eye. The idea of patient expecting is noteworthy. While wishing implies that we don’t know whether or not something we want will happen, hoping means that we know something WILL happen, although we may not know when. When we say, “I have hope”, we are saying, “I believe”!
Being hopeful is impressive. While I can’t say that I have hope that my kids will have a 24 hour period with delightful behavior, I can say that I have hope that God will guide me how to parent them well through their childishness. I know without a shadow of a doubt that God is with me. That His Spirit gives me hints when a bad mood is occurring because they miss their friends. I expect God to parent me as I raise the children He has asked me to disciple. (I like disciple better than train. The latter word is too mechanical for me. Just a personal thing