“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13
With Thanksgiving weekend just behind us Canadians, and Orange Shirt Day honoured just one weekend before that, giving thanks for and appreciating the people in our lives, children especially, is strong on my mind.
We are hearing and seeing horrific reports coming in from Israel and from Gaza.
Children and women and seniors used as hostages to send messages of hate and retaliation. Completely innocent Israelis and Palestinians caught in the fatal cross-fires of terrorism and war!
It can be so tempting for us to ostrich ourselves away from the news; to bury our head in the sand and to wait for the despair to pass us by. This, however, is not our call as Christ Followers.
Earlier this week I listened to an excellent 20-minute workshop about cultivating a life of hope. About how we can become people who cultivate hope in the midst of catastrophic situations, in a time that feels like it’s the end of life as we know it?
How can we begin to live the kinds of lives that Paul describes as “overflowing with hope” in times of despair and discouragement?
Consider these Three Basic Principles of Hope that Danielle Strickland outlined in her talk…
1. Hope is honest, not happy…
When one third of the Bible is composed of lament passages, it would do us good to also apply these types of prayers to our own lives and to be honest about what we are facing.
“We’ve confused wishful thinking with hopefulness and no wonder it’s not enough to get us through despairing and difficult times… Because hope, at its core, is honest. Not afraid to tell the truth of how things actually are.”
2. Hope is present tense…
Hope is what God has and who God is; hope is a presence, an eternal quality of God!
Since we know that this is true of who God is, if we want to cultivate hope, we need to cultivate a relationship with God. This also means that we need to acknowledge that true, lasting, present tense hope cannot come from other things.
It won’t be found in the replaying the past or trying to brainstorm how you might’ve done things differently. It won’t be found in looking forward and waiting for the future to come. Hope is found in the presence of God – right here, right now.
“This is the thing about honest hope… when you get to the end of yourself, when you’re honest about your need, when you’re real about where it is that you find yourself, that’s when you encounter the God who is with you. When you get there?! That is a hope that cannot be shaken.”
3. To be people of hope, to participate in hope, is to be active, not passive…
Hope isn’t something that we simply observe from a distance or something that will change us from catching glimpses of it far away. Hope is God with us and that is something that we can participate in actively!
“In that action of participating with God in bringing life and fullness and truth to the world, you will find hope overflowing inside of you. THIS is what it means to live lives of hope.”
And so, with all of this in mind, lets cautiously begin to remove our heads from the sand. Let’s begin to become more informed of what is going in the world around us. Let’s look towards Gaza and towards Israel and weep with God over the countless lives that have been taken or irreversibly changed by the tragedies of hatred and violence.
Let’s be honest about what’s happening. Let’s cry out over the precious lives that have been lost and continue to hang in the balance.
Let’s not be afraid of coming undone and trust that God truly is Emmanuel – God With Us.
And let’s participate in what God is doing!
Let’s check in with our Jewish, Israeli, Muslim and Palestinian friends and families.
Let’s send over meals because cooking in times of shock and deep disruption must feel unbearable.
Let’s respond with love and let’s listen as they share the honest truth of where they’re at!
Let’s take even one little step closer to becoming those who are “overflowing with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”.