Lenten Journey: Hope Does Not Disappoint Us

This Lenten Journey that I have decided to take is about inviting transformation. So far we have explored languishing and the malaise that may be a reaction to the pandemic or just the responses death and loss that doesn’t need a pandemic. We’ve explored grief and how we grief has shaped our life so far.

I promised we would turn to the issue of Hope when I asked that we stay in the grief of Good Friday to take a closer look at how we have experienced grief. So, let’s do that now. I want to share with you a blog I wrote two years ago on the subject of Hope.

"Hope Does Not Disappoint Us"

I just watched an inspiring movie by my friend Steve Sealy. The movie told the story of a man named Matt who suffered a serious spinal injury that rendered him quadriplegic (with an expectation that this would be a lifelong condition). One year later, Matt rode in the Triple Bypass bicycle ride. (The Triple Bypass is a 120 mile ride between Evergreen at the edge of the foothills west of Denver over three mountain passes - actually there's a pretty significant fourth climb but it’s not a mountain pass - to Avon, just west of Vail.) Completing the Triple Bypass is something to feel proud of all by itself. My wife and I have both completed it at least once and it is rigorous for SO many reasons. But to complete it after such a devastating injury is really hard to fathom.

On his cycling jersey, Matt referenced a scripture from Paul's letter to the Romans which includes this passage:

"We also highlight our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts."

There is SO much to unpack in this passage. First of all, some suffering is devastating and debilitating. Not all quadriplegics walk again, let alone accomplish great athletic tests of endurance. So, let's not get lost in an idea that this passage is only for the conquerors. Jesus was decidedly not speaking to the conquerors even though his message was intended for all.

Where I have used the word “highlight,” the actual English word used in many translations is “boast.” But this Greek work, “kauchaomai,” is also translated as “exalt” or “glory.” So, I’ve chosen a word that finds a middle ground. I chose “highlight” to remove the distraction of the negative connotation of arrogance in “boasting” but to retain the sense of lifting something up that is found in “exalting.”

And the purpose of “highlighting” our suffering is not to say, “Look how strong I am that I got through this” but to say “Look at this suffering that we experienced” because whether we are devastated by it or we come out on the other end being able to do things we were told we would never do, we are here today to talk about it due to perseverance. And that perseverance strengthens our character above all else. The quadriplegic who remains a quadriplegic is no less strengthened in character by the way they face their new reality than the one who stands again. And that character produces a greater awareness of hope.

Hope is the persistent ability to imagine a different future in spite of present conditions or past experiences. Again, that is not to say that hope is limited to imagining getting up from a wheelchair. Hope is being able to imagine your ability to adapt and aspire regardless of other people’s definitions which may label you as “limited.”

Finally, Paul completes the connections by saying that hope is present to us because we feel the presence of God in hope. You may call that presence by different names. Inspiration, Creativity, Love. All of these name that sense of strength that stirs in the hope-filled heart. Paul, drawing on Jesus’ teachings, calls that presence God because the God that forgives all and redeems all has declared that all are within God’s reach, all are God’s children, and no one is beyond God’s love and redemption.  

So, how does this apply to my life today and to all of our lives today?

Well, having recently completed cancer treatments with the ability to say that I am cancer free, I am aware of the power of Hope in this process. A little less than a year ago, I was given the diagnosis that turned my world upside down. My world wasn’t actually right side up when I got the diagnosis. My mother had died right after Christmas and, shortly after that, I officiated at a memorial service for a former youth group member who had died of stomach cancer. So, in the midst of this, I learned that all those gastrointestinal issues I was having weren’t just the result of stress and I had a rough journey in front of me.

Looking back at my journal entries from the beginning of this journey, I am struck by the sense of hope, the ability to imagine a different future in spite of present conditions. This is not a naïve hope. I knew what I was up against. And for that reason, this hope was coupled with action.

Which brings me to today as well. A kernel of this blog post stirred in me when we were only dealing with the Covid crisis. Now, with the recent murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and new revelations in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, we are facing the dual crises of a medical pandemic and a national reckoning with our long history of racism.

While we are in the midst of multiple layers of despair, we are capable of imagining a different future on both fronts. But that hope MUST be combined with action.

To take the simpler case of the Covid pandemic (who would have thought two weeks ago that the phrase “simpler case of the Covid pandemic” was possible?), it is not enough to imagine a different future. We can’t simply rest on our laurels as Americans who “bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice” after the Civil War or defeated Fascism in World War II or dreamed of sending a human being to the Moon in the early ‘60s. Each of those accomplishments required a combination of imagination and action.

Just because we HAVE imagined a different future doesn’t mean that imagining is the end. The Covid virus is NOT going to just miraculously disappear. The virus’ force is going to be mitigated by the actions we take to protect each other, to consider the most vulnerable, and to make the sacrifices necessary to do both. And the same is true with regard to racism and the institutions and our desire to cling to privilege that support it. We MUST imagine a different future and we MUST take the actions necessary to protect each other, to consider the most vulnerable, and to make the sacrifices (and changes are sacrifices) necessary to do both.

Hope is the ability to imagine a different future in spite of present conditions. But to take ACTION on that hope requires Faith. Which brings us to the final part of the scripture, “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.” Inspiration, Creativity, Love have been poured into our hearts.

To have faith is often understood as to have a belief in something. Those words, “faith” and “belief,” are often used interchangeably which is the subject for another blog. For now, it is important to highlight that the word “belief” is a movement in the heart. “Belief” is rooted in the Old English word “beloved,” “to hold dear.” In Latin, the word for “I believe” is “Credo.” “Credo” is literally the combination of the Latin words for “heart” (“cor” as in “courage”) and “to give” (“do” as in “donate). So, to believe something or to have faith in something is to give your heart.

That is what we are called to do in times of despair. To look for the stirrings in our heart and to give our hearts to the actions that will give rise to the future that we are imagining.

I’m not saying the journey will be easy or lack setbacks, even losses. And yes, those setbacks and losses disappoint us. But Hope does not disappoint us because Hope continues to give rise to action guided by a stirring in our hearts.

So, Hope, Have Faith, Give your heart to Action.

Dream. Be brave. Imagine. Act.

- June 5, 2020

Where have you found Hope? What are some times when you have managed to face despair with the creativity of imagination and found a new path? Not necessarily the path that completely returns you to the moment before the despairing event but a new path, a path in response to current conditions that helped you adapt and persevere on this new path.

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You are welcome to take this journey in solitude in your own personal journal or share your reflections. If anything that you do makes you think you might want to continue a journey using Spiritual Direction, now or in the future, you can make an appointment with me through my website: 

www.RedRocksSDC.com