Thought for the week – Hope is essential for our future

The message of Easter is one of hope and not just hope in some distant utopia or fulfilment in an after- life. Hope leavens the life of a believer – and can permeate every aspect of our lives.

But hope is not optimism – optimism is about how we would like things to turn out  – like winning the lotto. Hope is the conviction that our world has meaning and not at the mercy of chance or the invisible hand of economics.

Optimism can lead to a non-acceptance of what is here and now.

Hope is about now, this present moment, the conviction that something is worth doing no matter how it turns out – that there is meaning now.

Hope helps us to let go, to give up the control we yearn that inhibits our vision of a larger possibility….we are not responsible for creating significance each moment of  every day.

Hope is essential for our future – without it none of us would believe in the possibility of a different world, let alone work towards it…

St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians

My death defying ‘no’ to despair and my life affirming ‘yes’ to seemingly insurmountable problems in the midst of my life are both animated by hope in the invincible might of the risen Jesus and in the immeasurable scope of his power in us who believe. (Eph 1:19)