the Virtues of Hope

“Everything that is done in this world is done by hope.” Martin Luther

On a certain day each week, the convenience store in my neighborhood has a line stretching almost out the door as the lottery tickets for the lottery go on sale.  Never mind that the chances of winning are only slightly better than being hit by a meteor, the hope of sudden riches keeps them coming back.

Lotteries run on hope, but not realistic ones.  If a person had real hope for a win, they would sell everything they owned to buy tickets. Their hope is just a happy fantasy. Real hope demands the surrender of our souls.

Christian existence is a hopeful religion.  Our faith is not based on one hope, but on three: 

First, the ultimate hope of heaven.  The heavenly hope is that we will attain heaven in the next life.   If we lose our lives in this world, we have a new life in the next.  This hope has sustained martyrs and missionaries for centuries.

Second, the hope that the world may be improved.  This hope has spurred social renewal wherever the Gospel has gone. This hope keeps Christians active in evangelism and social change.

Third, the hope that we may become more like Jesus. It is the one that is most essential to spiritual growth—not the perfection of the world, but that we may attain a greater resemblance to Christ.    Our hope is for peace and assurance. for an inner life so strong that neither poverty or prosperity matters, not or the absence of personal problems, but for the ability to survive and thrive.  We place our faith in Christ in order that we might become like Christ, sharing in his Divine personality and nature.

 The Bible puts it this way:

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! . . .  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.” 1 John 3:1-3

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Rom 8:29

The goal of the Christian life is to be Christ-like, not in one area of our lives, but in all of them. 

What does a hopeful person look like?  He or she will exhibit four characteristics—perseverance, patience, planning, and flexibility.

Perseverance is the ability to keep on course, no matter what. A persevering person does not expect instant gratification, but is willing to continue without seeing results for a long period of time, in expectation of future benefits.

Consider the perseverance of a fisherman.  He may make cast after case with his bait, waiting for a big fish.  He may be out for days without the slightest nibble. Or consider perseverance of a salesperson.  She makes one cold call after another, getting yelled at, cussed out and hung up on countless times.  But when she makes a sale, it is worth the effort. Or consider the perseverance of a bodybuilder.  Day after day he strains his body to the breaking point. All he gets for his efforts are sore muscles.  Only after weeks of effort does he start to notice significant changes. Anything worth accomplishing only happens through frustration and discomfort. 

Patience is passive perseverance. It’s not what we do, but what de don’t do for the sake of accomplishment.  We feel we must do something, anything, but wisdom says wait for God’s voice.  We have hope that God will give us discernment and direction.  We are often tempted to jump at anything, but patience shows us the right time.

How do we discern when to wait, when to leap, and when to stay the course?   It isn’t easy. Patience is not waiting forever, but waiting on the Lord.  We must be attuned to hear His voice and His will. While we wait, we pray and be attentive, learning to recognize His voice when He calls, and keeping always before us the hope of God’s promise.   

Planning. While we wait, we plan.  Here we must make two distinctions about planning

First of all, planning isn’t worrying.  Worry approaches the future fearfully, anticipating all the bad things that can go wrong.  Planning is approaches the future hopefully, anticipating  how things may go right. Worry look at problems in big pieces, dreading how hard the whole task will be. Planning looks at the future in small segments. It doesn’t focus on the top of the mountain, but on what handholds and footholds we might try in the next few feet, and where we might attach our ropes. 

Flexibility. No plan ever goes smoothly. Nothing goes exactly as planned. Plans are always tentative, subject to God’s higher plan for us. Our plans need contingency plans, in case we need to go another way.  But they all should lead to our ultimate goal--conformity to the image of Christ.

We must not invest too heavily in our own correctness.  We are certain to be wrong at times, so we had better be prepared to change courses.  An inflexible person approaches his target like a bullet.  Once he is committed, there is no changing course, he will either hit or miss.  Most of them time, inflexible people miss their target. But a flexible person approaches target like a predator drone, guided intelligently to change course and make correction in her flight.  She has a much higher chance of hitting.  A flexible person bent on conformity to Christ’s image cannot miss in the end, since he or she has a distant target, and cannot help but come nearer to it at every moment.   

The hope of a Christian is certain, but the steps to that hope are uncertain. We need to keep our eyes on the hope, and not get bogged down in the details. Just keep moving towards our ultimate goal, which is to be like Christ. 

How do you maintain you hope?  What keeps you persevering.

I would love to hear from you, about how you maintain hope in your life.