My friend and I are very different. I'm organized and logical and my friend is, well, not. I used to think if she just planned better or made better decisions, God wouldn't need to intervene so often. And while sometimes better planning on her part would eliminate some of the situations she finds herself in, there is something else at work here that I learned from her.
My friend expects to see God work. She actually believes what the Bible says about trusting God to supply her needs, to listen to her concerns, to make things work out for God's plan, and then she finishes it off by giving God all the glory. She lives a life of hope.
It's very difficult for us to grasp what hope actually means because the biblical and theological understanding of "hope" is far different than how we use this word today. When we talk about "hope," we think about some sort of internal feeling, a wish that something we want to have happen will happen; or it won't happen whatever the case may be.
"I hope it doesn’t rain."
"I hope my sports team wins."
"I hope I can find a job."
But the hope of the Bible is very different than wishful thinking. The Greek word for hope is "elpis" which means to expect or anticipate with pleasure. This is an absolute, a guarantee without a doubt.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India was an amazing example of hope. This nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India in 1950 ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying for 45 years.
We have heard the stories and seen the pictures of her selfless caring for the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. After her death, the journals of Mother Teresa were published, and to the amazement of almost everyone, we learned that for fifty years – throughout her ministry in Calcutta – she wrote over and over again about experiencing a profound absence of God.
One might have imagined that this great saint would have had regular, intimate, mystical experiences of God. After all, how could she have been so selfless in her devoted care for others without a steady sense of God's comforting presence? How could she have possibly known what God wanted of her without a firm sense of divine guidance? But not so, she felt abandoned by God, dry, empty – a fifty year dark night of the soul.
And yet, through it all, she kept going on. Every day, patiently persevering, acting as if the God she couldn't see was actually in the midst of the darkness she felt. Every day going to Mass, saying her prayers, living in community with her nuns, feeding the hungry, comforting the dying – day in, day out patiently persevering. She wasn't relying on human hope. If so, how long would she have lasted in her work? She woke up every day relying on biblical hope. The hope promised in the Bible.
What a powerful example of what hope is all about: Living as if God is present even when He seems absent.
As Mother Teresa experienced and wrote about, most of the time we don't get answers. We don't walk about every day with an abiding sense of God's presence. In our difficult times, we may be led to believe that God is absent, unconcerned, or we just aren't tuned in to Him.
This is the message of the Gospel: in the midst of the chaos, when God seems nowhere to be found, God is actually there. As Julian of Norwich wrote – all is well, all will be well. So have patience, for the kingdom of God is breaking through.
Our choice comes down to cynicism and despair or hope. Hope is a decision we make; it is a choice; it is a lifestyle. It's not a feeling, a state of mind, or a personality trait. Hebrews 11:1 states "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."
Or to paraphrase it – hope is believing in spite of the evidence, and watching – expecting the evidence change.
Will hope change my circumstances? No. But it will definitely change my attitude and actions.
When we live a life of biblical hope, we proclaim that even when God seems distant or invisible, even when we don't see God or when we feel alone or abandoned, we will act as if God is present. We will get up every day and persevere. We will hope.
So what does this hope look like?
We meet with other believers.
We serve the needs of others.
We go out into our lives every day and live a life of compassion, treating others with dignity.
We keep praying.
Live this Christmas season and coming year with real, biblical hope and expectation. Be hope in action, doing your part in building up the kingdom day in and day out.
Choose to be hope-filled, with a hope rooted in faith. Hope that is patiently persevering – living life as if God is truly present and abiding even when it may seem otherwise.
One last thing. The friend I spoke of earlier, it's one of those interesting things in life.
Her name is Hope.
Written by Patty Craft
Grants Manager, The Salvation Army New Jersey Division
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