Hope is an Action Word, April 13

Wednesday, April 13

1 Peter 1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This “choose hope” thing sounds great on a bumper sticker or t-shirt. But really? How do you choose hope when the future looks so dim?

Mom has been getting slower, more easily fatigued, and less sturdy physically. She chalked it up to old age, but I suspected something more sinister and insisted we visit the doctor. We quickly found out she has acute myeloid leukemia—blood cancer. For an 88-year-old, it is a terminal diagnosis. Suddenly, we have been thrust into the world of multiple blood samples, transfusions, and other miracles of modern medicine. CBC, HCT, RBC, ABO, are the new letter combos of our alphabet.

I mentioned my mom’s leukemia to an acquaintance who said, “well, I hope she gets better soon!” Nope, highly unlikely, a cure would be nothing short of a miracle. Not that I don’t believe in miracles, but the reality we must plan for is that she will not get better. Hope is a funny thing in our culture. This interaction and a recent sermon encouraged me to delve deeper into what is hope and how can I choose hope in the face of a situation that seems hopeless.

Hope isn’t the same as half-glass-full thinking (blind optimism). You can hope when your glass is only a third full or even completely empty. Hope is seeing that in addition to the water in the glass there is air and room for more water. True hope is not about living in a fantasy world, rather, it is about not denying suffering and pain, yet choosing to fully live in this one. It is about being forward-thinking without denying the realities in this moment. Turns out there are studies that have been conducted to differentiate between hope and optimism. They have found that with people who have experienced tragedy or trauma, the outcomes for “hopeful” people are significantly better than those of “optimistic” people.

Like love, hope can be a feeling, but is more fully expressed as an action. Hope, like love, won’t just magically show up. We must exercise it and work at it. Fortunately, hope gets easier as you choose it more often. It demands that we look at the chaos, danger, and fear around us, the frustration and disappointment in our lives and the lives of others, and the insurmountable challenges that face us, and refuse to accept defeat. Hope in its purest form spurs us to action.

The reality is my mother will most likely die before she sees another Christmas. What is my hope? I hope that while she is still alive, she LIVES. Hope in action might look like eating ice cream for dinner, visiting a museum, and enjoying breakfasts at her favorite restaurant. I hope that she can have a respectful death that retains her dignity. Hope in action looks like forgoing painful treatments that only prolong death and putting in place advanced directives. Most importantly, I trust in the promises found in the resurrection. The last word will not be “old age,” it will not be leukemia—my hope is in Christ Jesus. Love and life always win; always, even in death.

Oh, Great Jehovah, although it may look dark sometimes, you are always with me. You go before me and walk with me. In challenging times, help me choose hope and grant me the courage and strength to act on that hope. Amen