Hope (02/08/2025)

When my niece, Bethany, was quite young, she got it in her mind that she needed a dog, not just any dog, but “a big black dog.” And whenever I saw her, she would talk about getting “a big black dog.” I remember once when she was about 4 asking her if she’d gotten her “big black dog.” Her reply struck me. “Not yet,” she answered. In Bethany’s world it was only a matter of time. She was patient. She was hopeful. She was willing to believe in her parents even though her biggest wish hadn’t “yet” materialized.

That was over 30 years ago. To this day, as I think of “hope,” I think of Bethany and her response to me. I’ve heard that “Yet” so many times since. It is one of the most frequently used words in the psalms, introducing the psalmist’s hope regardless of what it looks like around him, regardless of having to wait for the LORD’s help.

As followers of Christ, we are called to be people of hope. We know we are living in a time of “already but not yet.” We know that Christ came and redeemed us, once and for all. That redeeming act has already occurred, but His salvific mission is not yet complete. We know that we must be people of hope who believe in His promise because He is trustworthy. As the Book of Hebrews says it so well:

“Let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for He who made the promise is trustworthy. We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works.”

Think about it. Everything we know tells us to hope in Christ. He is trustworthy. When we look upon the crucifix, we know to our core both of His love and His commitment to us. If we will follow Him, we must be people of hope, or we have missed one of the greatest lessons He has striven to teach us.

Times are difficult, but we who believe in Christ have hope. We open our minds, our hearts, and our wills to our Redeemer. We know that things aren’t perfect, “Yet”. Yet, we will praise our LORD. Yet, we will turn to our LORD for guidance and grace. Yet, we know that our LORD has not abandoned us for our LORD is the Good Shepherd.

When I look about me at the ones making a difference in our world, a true difference, they all share two attributes: they all are people with a great capacity to love and in that love give of themselves freely for the sake of others and they all are people of hope believing that every loving act matters if done in love and in, with and through Christ.

When I was going through chemo in 2022, I noticed the difference hope made in the patient. It impacted not only their results but the whole world around them. Hope is a buoyancy that benefits not only the possessors but those around them. And as I labor in various ministries in our faith community, I am struck by the impact of one hopeful soul on another. We gather in an imperfect world, but we are not hopeless. We know with every fiber of our being that our LORD is trustworthy. And our hope gives us resiliency.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.