DAILY DEVOT IONAL 36

Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. - Romans 5:5 RVSUE

A long time ago, I read an article about cultivating “reasonable hope” that has stuck with me. The author’s point was that hope is essential. It’s essential for healing, and it’s essential for change. The trouble is that we don’t always feel hopeful. She noted, “We tend to feel hopeful when the goal is clear, the pathway known, and hopeless when the way is blocked, the goal obscure.”

These days, I feel like many of the pathways forward are unknown. It is unclear to me how I, with my effort and influence, can tilt the world toward greater justice or beat back the ravages of climate change. Hope, as a feeling, slips through my fingers.

But “reasonable hope” isn’t a feeling; it’s a practice. It’s an action that we take to ensure something is done, even if we can’t accomplish the fullness of our heart’s desires. We embody reasonable hope as we identify realistic goals and a pathway toward them—for ourselves and for others.

The reality is—we don’t get to choose when or how we heal. Those things are beyond our control. We do get to choose how we show up for ourselves and for each other as we do the work of healing—both our own healing and the healing of the world around us.

We can show up; we can embody reasonable hope because we know that our hope will not be put to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

PRAYER:

God of compassion and steadfast love, thank you for hope. Thank you for the precious moments when we feel it and for every opportunity that you give us to embody it. Grant us the courage to act, the boldness to continue showing up, trusting that the future is secure, for you go before us into it. This we ask in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.