The Courage to Hope
“I just don’t look forward to anything anymore,” my younger sister said with an indifferent shrug, an almost convincing attempt at complete apathy. “If I do, I’m just going to get let down. Haven’t you learned that by now?” she sounded almost pitiful as she glanced at my dejected figure, slumped on the couch. Something had let me down again. I had refused to adopt the seemingly universal pessimistic outlook on this past year, and put my hope in yet another thing that never came to fruition.
Pre-covid, I had always been a person who got out of bed each morning in anticipation for the next exciting event in my calendar. I needed landmarks -- a day off of school, a night out with friends, a concert, a trip -- something to look forward to. On the days where I couldn’t seem to get out of bed before sunrise, I examined the day ahead and would choose one exciting thing-- sometimes as small as learning a new piece of music in choir. Knowing I could look forward to that, I was able to get out of bed, eager to encounter whatever bright spot I had deemed as the highlight of my day.
Without realizing it, I had been slowly conditioning myself to put my hope in things of the world. And as the world shut down and landmark after landmark got erased off my calendar, I started to feel as though I had lost all of my reasons to get out of bed each morning.
It was a bleak reality to face.
It was then, when I was left with an empty calendar and a just as empty future, that I realized my big mistake. I had stored my treasure where moths and vermin destroy, and was left with a heavy heart and an anxious soul.
I was listening to a podcast one day about dealing with disappointments in life (surprise, surprise) when a question the host posed made me stop in my tracks. Jeanine Amapola had hit me with the question I never knew I needed to wrestle with until that moment : when it seems as though everything in life is stripped away, is Jesus enough?
My immediate answer: yes, of course! Jesus is everything I need and MORE. But the thing is, I realized how I had been easily deceived into putting my hope in everything but Him. A classic problem: looking to creation for hope instead of the creator.
And then before we know it, we’re being let down. Disappointed. Again and again and again until one day, maybe even unconsciously, we stop hoping. And in this hopelessness is where we are most vulnerable to the devil’s lies. Where we are most likely to believe that we are helpless. Worthless. Unloveable. It is a very dangerous place to be, and one that I found myself in after having battled through 2020.
It takes courage to hope. In the state of the world we live in, those who choose to be hopeful can be seen as ignorant and lacking a “wise, mature” outlook on life. It’s a discrete message, but a message all the same, that this mindset is a reflection of a naive character and a shallow soul. Having unwavering hope defies cultural norms. It is misunderstood, because it is a hope that relies on the unseen.
Romans 5:3-5 says that “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
2020 has certainly been a year filled with suffering. And that suffering has caused those of us who call Jesus our savior to lean into him and persevere through the storm. That perseverance has produced character, through wrestling with the darkest parts of ourselves and learning how to better love others and love Jesus. And that character growth, for me personally, has given me a new hope. A hope that will never be postponed or cancelled or made virtual. A hope that keeps my soul buoyant amidst the storms of life. A hope that is nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to excuse or cover hope or dampen. A hope in the never-wavering, ever-constant goodness and faithfulness of the Lord.
As we enter into a new year, I challenge those of you reading to have the courage to hope. Have the courage to hope even while living in a world that seems further from any sort of redemption than ever. Be empowered that God’s love has been given to you for a purpose: to have a hope that is so foreign to the world. A hope that is almost incomprehensible. A hope that causes those who witness it to ask questions. It is brave to hope. And it is what gives those who call themselves followers of God a reason to get up in the morning.
