Hope Springs Eternal

The Arkansas area of the Mississippi Delta is one hot place especially in July! It is there, some years ago, that I witnessed the dejectedness of a community. Industry had left the area. There was little left for the people of that region but that was their home and they would not or could not bring themselves to follow prosperity. Given that parameter, other challenges arose for them. They could not find jobs nor could they imagine a future for themselves in that place. So they just got a long with a sadness that permeated their lives.

I look around me today and I see all sorts of people and all sorts of situations in which people cannot seem to move beyond the experience of what they HAVE known to embrace the hope of what they COULD know (for themselves or others.) The ability to dream and think outside the box seems utterly diminished.

Last night I found myself at a Rotary Foundation Dinner and there, gathered with new friends, one spoke of the economic crisis in some of the most impoverished places of our nation. It reminded me of my days in Arkansas. It reminded me that such lack of hope did not have to be. He spoke of how the key to moving them beyond their impoverishment always came back to incentive. Give them some sort of incentive to reach forward and they will move toward it.

One word came to my mind as he spoke: hope. Hope! The book of Hebrews says that "faith is being sure of what we HOPE for and certain of what we do not see. The Hebrew people themselves spoke of hope being that disposition in which we wait with anxious anticipation as if on the edges of our seats. To have that kind of hope there must be some vision for which we hope.

A friend and I were chatting yesterday about such hopeful visions. "Is it fair to hold to such visions? What if they are selfish? How do we know if they are God-given or if we've just made them up?!" we both queried. As our conversation ensued we realized that peace and contentment are the gifts of God. If we find peace and contentment around a vision, isn't it fair to assume that vision is a gift of God? And if that vision is a gift of God, would it not be sinful on our parts to resist believing that it could actually come true, that God is capable of providing that vision that he promised for our lives? Shouldn't that belief prompt us toward the posture to which the Hebrews referred? And once we find such hope don't we find incentive? Isn't that one and the same?

I don't know the detailed ways in which you may lack hope. I only know my own ways and I ultimately I know this. As a Christian, God calls me to trust what I sense him telling me. In that trust, I must have confidence that I hear God correctly. I must believe that the promise will come to fruition in God's time and in God's way and thus I posture myself with joy on the edge of my seat waiting to see the fulfillment of the promise.

This day, I hope for you and every community that may lack hope, the ability to see God's vision of peace for you and to place all hope toward it with anxious, excited anticipation. May hope spring eternal for us all! Amen.