Hope For All Things

I've been thinking about Hope a lot lately. It's funny how cancer will do that to you. My brother-in-law, Jonathan, has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. It is not the kind of news you ever expect to hear, but especially not about a 28 year old. It brings to mind that song lyric playing on today's radio stations, "I guess we're all one phone call from our knees."

Of course, in times of trouble, as in times of ease, I look to my faith. I sit and ponder what this means, where to find strength, what to hope for.

Hope can sometimes seem at first blush to be little more than wishful thinking. As one author put it, most of us use the word 'hope' as the verbal equivalent of crossing our fingers. i.e., I really 'hope' this officer lets me off with a warning. We talk as a family about how nice it is to have a doctor offer us some small sliver of hope. Countless well-wishers tell us that they 'hope' things go our way.

But as I ponder the scriptural sense of Hope, the one that we are commanded to have along with Faith and Charity, I wonder what it is that God is asking us to do. Surely He is not talking about just clinging to wishful thinking. Because, since life doesn't always turn out the way we want it to, where's the virtue and courage in that?

I finally read an article that clarified this for me. There is a scripture about how experience brings about hope (Romans 5:4). Why is that? Our past experience with God as a just and loving Being informs our ability to Hope that He will continue to be so. That no matter how things turn out, He will fulfill his promises and take care of us in the eternal sense. Hope, then, is a courageous determination to look to the future. A belief that no matter what the present, the future will hold what God has promised. And that is as joyous a thought as my mind can comprehend.

So, based on my experience, I know that I can place my Hope surely in several things.
I put my Hope in miracles, understanding that those miracles take many forms. Sometimes healing bodies, often healing hearts.
I put my Hope in eternal things, including families that can be bound together through sacred covenants.
I put my Hope in a loving Heavenly Father, who grants tender mercies to help us through the trials we encounter.
And, mostly, I put my Hope in Christ, who understands all things and abides with us during our darkest hours.

I ask for your prayers on behalf of Jonathan and our family as we navigate what lies ahead, grateful that we don't have to captain this ship ourselves.

God will take care of that.