Hope is help along the way

I have been accused of being a "Pollyanna" more than once in my life, as if that was a bad thing. Pollyanna, you may recall, believed that hope held is hope fulfilled, and that hope shared is hope doubled, not halved.

But where does hope come from? You can't buy it at the local discount store, saving by buying in bulk. The vending machines don't have it, a serving of hope offered next to a honey bun or a bag of chips, all for the same low price. There are no "do it yourself" kits available online, all of the components of hope delivered to your door with step-by-step instructions on how to manufacture it, nor is there a magic pill that infuses the recipient with self-replicating cells of hope. Yet, it is as necessary as breath if we are to safely navigate the day before us. Scripture teaches us that hope is not only a good thing, it is also a vital ingredient for faith. According to BibleGateway.com, the Bible contains many references to the word "hope." In the New Living Translation Bible, there are 189 occurrences. The King James Version contains 133 references to hope, and there are 174 references to hope in the New International Version.

One of my favorite lines from the book and the movie, "Shawshank Redemption," is when the character Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, writes to his former prison mate, "Red" Redding, played by Morgan Freeman, "... hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." What he doesn't reveal is the source of hope.

I sat down to a table of hope last Friday, during the luncheon that follows the Community Lenten services. Seated at the table with me were other women approaching a significant number of years, one long-widowed, another new to that strange and heartbreaking reality. Hope. bathed in tears, perhaps born in tears, abounded around that table.

Hope is help along the way. Hope is chronicled in our evening prayers as hope held close is fulfilled, for another day.

One of the dangers Pollyanna faced, a danger I also face as I hold onto hope, is that of false expectations. The false expectation that since God is in his heaven all is suddenly right with my world, and I will never suffer loss or bereavement -- the false expectation that now that I am his, life will be easy and everything will finally make sense. It doesn't work that way.

What did Jesus say about this life, about the suffering, the struggles, the heartache and the pain of it? Did he offer, along with salvation, the cessation of these ills? No, in fact, he emphatically warns us that in this world we will have trials and tribulations and encourages to take heart because he has overcome this world, prescribing the heavenly antidote we call hope.

So, is it just for the sake of eternity that we have hope? Is hope to be deferred until death allows us the freedom to revel in its fulfillment? Certainly not. Jesus brought life, and that more abundant, to this day, not to some far off day after death has transferred us from this reality into eternity. And a life without hope is no life at all. To quote Andy Dufresne again, hope reveals that it's time to "get busy living or get busy dying."

Hope also shows us that our suffering has purpose. Hope shows us that the Lord doesn't waste our pain, but rather, that he transforms our pain into hope. And hope is revealed in each of our stories, as we endure them, as we share them, and as we live them.

"Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame..." Romans 5:3-5 (NIV)

I don't have all the answers, but I know and love the One who does. Let's walk in his love and discover him together.

Dawn