Hope unlimited by our limits

Hope is sinewy, tenacious, and determined. It gives us strength when ours is gone, carries us into the future when we’ve been knocked-off our feet by the disappointments of the present, and makes it possible for us to trust that God is with us even when we feel alone. 

We can’t produce hope for ourselves. We can, of course, train ourselves to think more positively, tend to our anxiety more mindfully, and view our circumstances more optimistically.  It’s possible, with practice, for Eeyore to learn from Tigger, for people who see the glass half-empty to recognize that it really is also half-full, and for “woe” to give-way to “wow.” 

Hope, though, is what we need when even the best leverage we have against hard and heavy reality won’t budge it, and our attempts to move it have left us exhausted. Hope is a gift from God; it’s an infusion of divine energy from beyond us and an uprising of the creating and sustaining Spirit from within us.