Hope sometimes seems hard to come by these days, even for people of faith. Stories of moral scandal, dishonesty, and corruption fill the news; unstable economies around the world leave people of all nations unsure about the future. Technology threatens to swallow us, and we live with pressures to face changes that seem to come at lightning speed. Even our civil identities can be stolen. Pervasive human trafficking enslaves people in other countries but also in our cities and small towns. Drug-related violence and drive-by shootings rob children of the chance to play in the sunshine. The world is in trouble.

What can we say to ourselves and to one another when it seems that the only news is bad news? Christians are called to offer hope to a world that desperately needs it. Our faith is not “pie in the sky, on high, by and by, when I die.” Our faith in God can make a difference in us and in the lives of others here and now. If it does not, why and how should we trust in God for the future?

But Christian hope is not simply being a Pollyanna about the matters of daily life. A fictional character created by novelist Eleanor Porter in the early 20th century, Pollyanna was an orphan who always found something good even in terrible situations. Her optimism was so excessive as to be completely illogical. Being called a Pollyanna is not a compliment. Looking for the good is not wrong; optimism and positive thinking are useful tools taught by motivational speakers and behaviorists. But they operate completely apart from belief in God. In fact, they sometimes oppose Christian teaching, as in their emphasis that we can control our destiny and shape our circumstances entirely by force of our will.

In contrast to these, Christian hope grows not from what we can do or how well we can refine our “positive self-talk.” Our hope is based in God’s character and God’s will for good. Christians believe that God offers redemption to individuals and to the entire world. When we see how far the world is from what God wants, we do not have to retreat to safety and succumb to despair. Jesus showed us that God does not hide from human needs and failings. Jesus told his followers to be simultaneously “wise as serpents” and “innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16, nrsv). He faced evil and called it what it was. Similarly, through the centuries Christians have been realists who saw need — for example, slavery and lack of education and medical care, oppression of Jews under Hitler, forgotten people dying alone in the streets of India — and acted because they believed God wanted better for each one of us infinitely valuable individuals.

Those who work and have worked in the name of Christ for change did so and persevere in doing so because Christians believe God works with us, alongside us, and through us. Because we trust God’s steadfast love, our vision of a better future is not just wishful thinking. Our hope is based in God’s nature. Regardless of what we see or don’t see, we know God is always up to something — something good.

Christian hope is not a vague, anemic wish that things could be different. Christian hope is much more robust and durable than that. Christian hope is based in the truth of resurrection as we see it in the life of Jesus. In Christ, God shows us that even when it seems that evil has triumphed, God has a way to bring renewed life. When we allow ourselves to give in to the idea that there is no way to turn the ship of this world around, we have fallen captive to faulty thinking. No matter how bleak a situation may appear, because of God’s goodness and love for each one of us, we can trust that God is at work to bring new life.

In the face of the world’s problems and our personal ones, we pray and present ourselves to God. When we do, God will open our eyes to our part in what needs to happen next. We are never given the full picture of the future (and most of the time we should be glad of that); we are given only light for this day, one day at a time. We are tethered to God by our needs and the world’s needs, and our inability to meet them — but this is the source of our hope: our unbreakable connection to God and God’s will for our good.

Several meditations in this issue address the question of hope or absence of it. You may want to read again the meditations for September 4, 7, 28, 30 and October 7, 19, 22, 27, and 29 before answering the reflection questions on the next page.

Questions for Reflection:

1. What recent news item causes you to feel as if some problems will never be solved? What do you want to say to God about the problem? About your feelings?

2. What scripture verse or story reminds you that we can live in hope? What verse or story comforts you when you feel hopeless? Or, if you never feel hopeless, what do you do to maintain a sense of hope all the time?

3. Whom do you know who is relentlessly positive? What lessons can we learn from such people? Do you think some of us are born with a positive nature and some not? Either way, should we try to make ourselves feel positive and say positive things?

4. For you, how does Christian hope differ from positive thinking? Where do the two overlap? Where do they conflict?

5. Is it a sin to feel hopeless? Why or why not? What scripture verses or stories support your answer?

6. Besides God’s desire that we live fully (John 10:10), on what other traits of God do you base your hope for the future? What experiences have taught you to be hopeful?

— Mary Lou Redding