Let's reclaim a buzzword: Hope.

My faith has hope on the tip of its tongue at any given moment. The Bible, especially the letters, are peppered with this word hope. What is hope? And what is it that we're hoping for?

Abraham & Naomi
Two people from the Hebrew Scriptures give us an insightful window into the meaning of hope by the way they entered the process of hope. Abraham, the patriarch of Israel, and Naomi, the mother of Ruth. Both were relying on God for something similar. Abraham was told he'd be the father of an entire nation, but he and his wife were getting up in their years and were past the point where childbirth was possible. Naomi lost her husband and her two sons, and therefore her daughters-in-law lost their husbands. She assumed that she'd live the rest of her life alone.

But, as I've learned time and again, nothing is impossible for God.

In Romans 4:18-21, it says that against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations.

"Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised."

And God did indeed live up to His Word.

Naomi's story is pretty complicated. After her husband and two sons died, she prepared herself for her daughters-in-law to return to their original homes and find peace in the arms of new husbands. She thought she was beyond the years where she could find a husband, and resigned herself to a lifetime of loneliness. But her daughters decided to stay with her. Naomi responded:

"Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons- would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD's hand has gone out against me!"

Naomi gave up hope. She soon changes her name to Mara, which means 'bitter'. This story is far too complex to jump into here but suffice it to say that because of their status as daughters-in-law and because she would be in dire straits without a husband, the outlook is bleak.

But God has other plans. There is a man named Boaz who was a close relative of Naomi. Boaz married Ruth, one of Naomi's daughters, and qualified as a 'kinsman redeemer', which, according to the Torah, meant among other things that he had a duty to look after the needy and helpless members of a family. Ruth and Boaz saw Naomi into old age and a son was born who continued the line of heritage that would give birth to David, and therefore, Jesus.

Hopeless or Hopefull
Abraham and Naomi found themselves in situations where hope didn't seem like the logical place to live from. They responded to God's grace in their lives in opposite ways. Both were ultimately taken care of by God, which raises interesting questions about this word, hope.

Is hope something we feel like an emotion? Or is it just something that is and that we can grab onto or not?

If we let go of hope, how does it affect us in the long-run? What about the short-run?

Does our hoping or not hoping change anything about who God is and what He's doing?

Can hope fail us? What does it mean for hope to fail or succeed? What does hope mean and what good is it to me? In the words of The Shawshank Redemption, is hope a good thing or a dangerous thing?

I've found several definitions of hope. Hope is the expectation of good. Hope gives joy and pleasure, even if pain and anxiety show up in the process. Hope is a process. It's confidence in a future event, and not for a moment, but for all of the moments.

An interesting note to end the first entry in this series: Jesus never uses the word hope in his teachings. Instead, he says things like don't be anxious about the future, and that after his resurrection there will be renewed spiritual power available, enabling his disciples to do even greater works in the world than even he did. And he says that we can look forward to sharing in his own eternal glory.

Which, of course, points us to even more questions.

Next: suffering, perseverance, character & hope

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