I’ve been meaning to write about this for awhile. It kind of fits in there with other small topics like love, grace and wonder. 🙂

Actually, it’s a better match with love and wonder, not grace, in a certain sense. As in, we constantly use words like love, wonder and hope to mean all sorts of things, while the word grace is hardly ever used, and even less understood. I think if we asked the average non-religious person what comes to mind when they hear the word, “grace,” they’d maybe reply that it’s something religious people say before dinner. But, however it’s understood, whatever the context, it’s not a word that gets much play in day to day conversation.

It’s different with love, wonder, and hope. I’ve already taken a stab at love and wonder and I guess I’ll try to do likewise with hope. The timing is good, with our latest news.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans at 8:24, he says, “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?”

This is a powerful insight into the nature of hope, however we encounter the Christian worldview. We can take the simple last expression and go, “duh!” Or, we can see it as a clarification of the power in the first sentence.

What am I getting at? Everyone hopes and everyone uses the word all of the time. It can be a simple toss away like, “Man, I hope it stops raining soon.” Or, (thinking), “I hope that lady with the full cart doesn’t get in the checkout line before me!” It can also go a bit deeper, as in, “I REALLY hope she likes me.” Maybe, “I hope I get that job!”

Like love and, maybe, wonder, I think it’s great that people use the word hope. It’s only natural, of course, because we all hope. We always have and always will. Even those who have not really experienced love or wonder (what a tragedy!), undoubtedly hope.

But, what is hope that saves? That’s something to think about.

I think in order to go there, we need to look more deeply inward. See if you agree. I started a moment ago by referring to hope as a kind of fleeting desire. Here and gone. Maybe a bit stronger in the last two examples about relationship and job. Of course, Paul is right in that hope refers to something unseen, unattained. That desire is to connect with the unseen or unattained thing, therefore fulfilling the desire. At least, that’s the theory.

But, just as it’s helpful to try plumbing the depths of love and wonder, we should do that with hope. Again, what is hope that saves? What can that possibly mean and how can we make that useful?

What came to me a few moments ago as I sat down to tackle this subject, was to raise up the distinction between desiring something and yearning for it. To me, desire tugs at us while yearning pulls at us to the point it can deeply affect our behavior and life. If I were to interpret hope through the lens of desire, it would offer limited fulfillment. That hope might jump to something else, once that desire was met. Or, that hope appeared fleeting as the desire was not fulfilled, so I become less hopeful, detached, angry, depressed, even despondent. Maybe you’ll look at it somewhat differently, but I’ll take a stab it this way: Yearning is Desire on steroids. As in, I’m all in. This thing I seek is really big. It’s the center of my focus.

Of course, alarms could be going off about now. This line of thinking is easily attached to our previous thinking about the things we value the most and how they can become idols that never fulfill.

But, it’s a given that some THING or THINGS are at the center of our focus and often create a yearning. A deep desire. And, that yearning is the call. The call for something to fulfill or even complete us. For something, in fact, to save us.

Most of the things we yearn for, that beckon us towards them, are transitory. We arrive only to find that the yearning was actually more compelling and meaningful than the thing now achieved. The bloom wears off the rose. Unless the yearning is for something permanent. Unless the call is from something permanent.

Maybe I’m a little off base. But, I think hope that saves is a way of gently relating to that call … the call that speaks to our deep places and creates a yearning for completion.

I think it gets a little tricky here as we circle back to hope. Is hope the same as a dream? A wish? A fantasy? I’d like to think not. I think I mentioned before at some point that for some time now, I’ve responded to the question, “Are you an optimist?” (I’m not sure anyone has described me as pessimist by nature) … with “No, I’m a realist who hopes.”

While hope is for something not immediately present or attainable it IS for something realistic. It is not a wish or a dream. Especially if it is a hope that saves.

I’m hopeful. Hope Filled. Goodness, I live in anticipation of wonderful things that are life-giving. Hope allows me to see good when I’m surrounded by bad. Maybe that good is hard to see and maybe its presence is only faintly felt as a kind of mist in life. Sometimes, I need reminders, especially when the challenges and threats seem to come in waves and cut to the core. But, I need to testify that it’s getting easier to connect with hope. The hope that saves.

That same hope that saves is the hope we can breathe in our normal life. The same hope that saves is the hope that helps us shift our attention from the voice that whispers, “Be afraid.” “Give in to the suffering.” “You are in this alone.” The hope that saves whispers, instead, “I love you.” “You are held.” And, this is just a moment. A moment in the great course of your existence. There is so much more. More of that joy and beauty you adore. And, it’s here right now. Open your eyes and your heart. And, it’s here forever.”

The opposite of hope is despair. How awful. We need not despair. It is all right to hope. It is RIGHT to hope. Like love and grace, hope is the air we breathe.

I have not really gone into what I hope for. I think there’s more to explore here. Perhaps that will be Part III. 🙂