By Rev. Rebecca Hope Osborn, Rankin Inlet

Hope happens to be my middle name. It’s a little word with a wide meaning, like a tiny anchor that keeps a large boat from drifting away. When I think of the word “hope,” I think it means that there’s something positive that you want, and it’s something you don’t have complete control over. This could be ordinary, like hoping you can find matching socks in your drawer. But there is so much that we can’t control, both small and large. All religion in the world, to some extent, is an effort to understand and influence things that are out of our control. Therefore, all faith has, as its main ingredient, hope.

The author of the book of Hebrews understood this fundamental connection between hope and faith. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is hope with a dollop of certainty. What makes Christian hope unique is that it is founded in a historical event: Jesus rising from the dead (1 Peter 1:3). Paul is blunt about this: if the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a historical fact, our hope is a pile of nonsense and we should be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:19, 32). Humans tend to exert control in many ways, especially using things that we can see. But these plans never succeed completely. Paul warns us against putting our hope in wealth (1 Timothy 6:19), and David warns us against putting our hope in horses and chariots – meaning, in his context, military might and technology (Psalm 33:17). Those things are powerful: when we are up against those with greater wealth, military might, or technology, hope becomes difficult. Christian hope doesn’t come from those things we can see, but it comes from somewhere. We hope in Christ and his resurrection. In the Psalms, David claims hope from God’s word (Psalm 119:81,114), God’s laws (119:43), God’s name (52:9), and God’s unfailing love (Psalm 147:11). His son, Solomon, gets hope through learning God’s wisdom (Proverbs 24:14).

We also get hope from the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13), but Paul explains that this often happens by means of suffering: “because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5). This leads me to a point that is important to me personally: Being filled with hope does not mean being happy all the time. True, Paul gives the summary instruction to “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12). But hope is not ultimately tied to feelings; it’s tied to a choice to trust. The book of Job often deals with hope, because Job wrestles with whether to hold on to hope or not. He believes in God even while he is angry at God and does not understand why he has lost all his children and his wealth. Ultimately, in the midst of misery, he chooses hope: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face” (Job 13:15)

What are we hoping for? If we hope for a sense of control, we will be disappointed. We do hope for wisdom in this life, and that has positive consequences. But ultimately our hope is for eternal resurrected life (Titus 1:2), for Jesus to come back and establish his kingdom on earth (Titus 2:13), and to join in the glory of God (Colossians 1:27). Even though our hope is in things eternal, holding onto that hope comes with many benefits in the present. Hope grants strength (Psalm 31:24), honor (Psalm 25:3), rest (Psalm 62:5), a soul anchor (Hebrews 6:19), mental protection (1 Thess 5:8), God’s goodness (Lamentations 3:15), and does help lift up your feelings (Psalm 42:5ff). Hope produces faith and love, and is stored up in heaven (Colossians 1:5)

Hope is the base ingredient of faith. It requires us to admit that we do not have total control, and to put our lives in the hands of the one who does have control. When we put our hope in God, we have to accept his priorities and plans. It requires trust and surrender – and waiting (Psalm 130:5, Romans 8:25). In fact, “wait” and “hope” are the same word in Spanish! As such, no matter what our feelings, hope in God is a choice. I am thankful that we get to base our hope in something real – Christ’s resurrection – and that this hope has real benefits we can see in our lives.