Hope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness. Hoping is knowing that there is love; it is trust in tomorrow; it is falling asleep and waking again when the sun rises. In the midst of a gale at sea, it is to discover land. In the eyes of another, it is to see that he understands you. As long as there is still hope, there will also be prayer. And God will be holding you in his hands. - Henri Nouwen, With Open Hand, 85.
In an article in Christianity Today, Cornel West stated, “As a Christian, I am a prisoner of hope.” (Christianity Today, October 26, 1998, p. 88) In the midst of all I do or ever did, God was always been there encouraging me to hope for far more than I ever thought possible.
We need hope. Biblical hope is trustful expectation. Hope is the confidence that what God has done for us in the past guarantees our participation in what God will do in the future.
From what do you draw hope? What keeps you going and gives you a reason to live? Many people rely on simple wishful thinking and call it hope. Where Jim Wallis from Sojourners magazine tells us, “Hope is believing in spite of the evidence and watching the evidence change.” This is hope based on what God is willing to do within our lives.
Over the years I have been called upon to assist community groups work through problems, such as, alcohol or drug abuse. One of the most demanding problems in helping any group is to assist them in overcoming their own sense of hopelessness. When you approach a group that uses phrases, such as, "It's too late," "Nothing can be done about it," "You can't fight city hall," "You can't change the world," or "What's the use!" These statements indicate a group drowning in their own hopelessness. Their repeated failures only re-enforced their hopelessness, even though their hopelessness often leads to their failures, they see themselves only drowning.
