Words for Hope

The New York Times reported today (5/21/21) that while victory over Covid has not yet arrived, it is growing close.  More than 60 percent of American adults have received at least one vaccine shot and the share is growing by about two percentage points per week.  In the space of a few weeks, I’ve moved from hiding in my home to a dinner with friends in a restaurant! (I know! A real restaurant!  With sit down tables and
chairs and menus!)  What seemed inconceivable even six months ago has really happened.  We have several safe vaccines that work and that have been successfully distributed to almost all Americans who want a vaccine.  Really, it’s a miracle.

And now we are left to re-emerge.  To try to process this experience individually and as a whole.  To determine what we’ve learned and how we can go forward hopefully wiser, better, kinder, gentler?  After all, most of us have had a lot of time to slow down, to self-reflect, to examine our priorities. 

I’ve learned a few lessons (or relearned as the case may be since I seem to need several rounds of reminding on every lesson).  One is that my long list of things to accomplish doesn’t seem much shorter (is the basement reorganized?  Have I exercised each day? Changed my diet?  Alas, the answer is no to all of the above).  But agonizing over what I haven’t done is no way to re-emerge.  I need to move forward with a renewed sense of what matters and energy to make a difference.  After all, I and my family are lucky to be alive.

This is not the first time that humanity has experienced pandemic.  There’s the 14 century’s Black Plague.  The Spanish Flu in 1918 killed more people than the plague, more than WW I and II combined (50 million people died worldwide in the Spanish flu).  As of today, 3.4 million COVID-19 deaths are reported worldwide).  And yet, people re-emerged.  They slowly took the masks off.  They went back to work.  They went back to dreaming of and working for a better world.

I wonder what your experience has been?  What makes you hopeful as you begin to re-emerge?  What lessons will you try to apply from here?  How do you help spread fresh hope in those around you?

“Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without words

And never stops at all.” (Emily Dickinson) 

 “Three things will last forever – faith, hope and love… (1 Corinthians 13:13)

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” (John 1:5)

Hope is hard to define precisely, but we know how it feels.  Without hope, life is at best flat, and at worst, may not feel worth living.  Hope is essential to our happiness and to our sense of purpose.  Decades of research show hope is a robust predictor of mental health, and even physical health and the ability to heal.   

There are a lot of people feeling hopeless these days – globally and in the US.  The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic pressures have negatively affected many.  A Kaiser Family Foundation July 2020 poll found 4 in 10 adults in the US have reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, up from 1 in 10 adults who reported these symptoms from January to June 2019.   

Perhaps you or someone you love is feeling hopeless.  Perhaps you’ve felt isolated and lonely during the pandemic.  Maybe you’ve lost someone you love to COVID and are grieving.  Maybe you’ve lost your job or your livelihood or you’re watching someone struggle and you feel impotent to help.  Perhaps you feel overwhelmed by political and cultural division, climate change, or any of the other myriad crises that we face at this moment.  There’s clearly no shortage of reasons you may not be feeling hopeful!  Perhaps there is no circumstance you can point to at all, you just feel like there is little to look forward to.  

What then, can you do when you are low on hope?  Certainly seeking professional medical help is always a good idea, but perhaps you’ve gone this route and it’s not helping.  Just like most journeys, your journey to hope is a personal one, but here are five practices that have helped me in the past: 

Examine your source of hope.  I realize that I often tie my hope to circumstances.  Circumstances change, and sometimes not in the way you hoped, but hope, true hope, is eternal.  How do we explain those like Anne Frank who, when faced with the worst that the world has to offer, still dared to hope.  Believe that at its foundation, the world is good and that we are never without hope.  For me, this is believing that God is good and that his good purposes will prevail.  What or who do you look to for hope?

Realize you are never alone.  A lot of people have felt alone during the pandemic.  We need people, but even some of us extroverts have retreated, and even unduly embraced the isolation of this time.  Certainly there is good that comes out of alone time, but I encourage you to seek real conversation with a friend (not a text!).  It does the heart good.  If you don’t feel like you have that heart friend, please know that you can always talk to God, who is your friend.  That might feel weird, like you are talking to air, but try it?  And remember, the best way to have the friends you want is to be the friend you want.  How can you reach out today and build your heart friendships?  

Look forward.  Yup.  We all know this one.  The only thing you have is the present…  Right.  Easier said than done, but it is really true.  Today is a new day and we can choose to make it what we hope (or at least take steps in this direction).  What is one thing you can do this week that moves you toward what you hope for the future?   

See beauty.  One of the choices we can make is what we choose to see.  My natural state, unfortunately, is to see the glass half empty – and to always be focusing on the “to do” list.  I don’t stop to smell the roses and frequently, I haven’t even seen the roses.  But quarantine allowed a lot of us the space to see differently.  Instead of focusing on what is wrong in my relationships, I am grateful to have them.  I also am choosing to see nature.  Right now I am looking at the trees outside my window and I really see them.  Man, I love trees.  There is so much beauty in the world.  What can you do to intentionally see beauty this week?

Connect to purpose.  We all need to feel like we matter.  And we do matter.  The Bible tells us that we were all created for “good works” especially designed for us.  This is not meant to be pressure inducing, but encouraging!  I sometimes feel far from “my purpose” but recognize that I may be thinking about this in too grandiose of terms.  We don’t have to figure out our ultimate purpose today (or maybe ever) – just what we can do today to make the world a better place.  It may be as simple as smiling and speaking a kind word in the grocery store line, sending a note of encouragement to someone you know is struggling or helping your mom with something that she needs help with.  What can you do this week to make the world a better place (no such thing as small things!)?

Feed hope not hopelessness this week and let us know how it goes!  We’d love for you to share below in comments