Wishful thinking is not hope

A recent Sunday scripture taught our community that: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

This understanding of God-based Hope is profoundly different than the world’s confused attempts to deal with the struggles, concerns and difficulties that present themselves on personal and communal levels within our lives. I am reminded of Lucy, in the Charlie Brown comic strip. Once again she is stationed in right field, and once again a ball is hit inn her direction. Once again she tries to position herself to catch that ball, and once again she misses and the ball lands behind her.

She picks it up and saunters to the pitcher’s mound to give it to Charlie Brown saying, “Sorry I missed that one, manager, I was hoping I’d catch it! Hope got in my eyes!”

Lucy’s story reveals confusion over what hope really is. Lucy confuses hope with wishful thinking. Wishful thinking looks for that which has never happened before. Wishful thinking anticipates that for which there has been no effort, no improvement. We need not look far to see instances of such misunderstandings of true hope. That God-centered hope that can and does lift us up and lead us forward, despite what the world may say and the devastating circumstances that may be present in our lives or world.

This can and does occur, because faith is indeed the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not perhaps yet seen. Such was the case with Abram, who would become Abraham. In faith he journeyed forward, leaving homeland and following the call of the Lord. While he would indeed become “The Father of many Nations,” he, himself, would not live to see such a reality.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn tells on, he was forced to work 12 hours a day on a starvation diet; and he became gravely ill. The doctors, in fact, predicted his death. One afternoon, while shoveling sand under a blazing sun, he simply stopped working. He stopped working even though he knew that the guards would beat him severely, even to death. But he felt he could just not go on. Then he saw another prisoner, a fellow Christian, moving towards him cautiously.

With his cane, that man quickly drew a cross in the sand and then erased it. In that brief moment, Solzhenitsyn felt all of the hope of the gospel flood through his soul. It was a renewal of Christian hope, even though the situation had not changed. It gave him courage to endure that difficult day and the months of imprisonment that followed. This is the difference between God-based hope and wishful thinking or optimism. Hope is founded in God, and like faith, hope is finally vindicated because God is faithful.

For the believer, hope is not dependent on the strength of our own spirit, but in fact functions precisely when our wishful thinking and optimism perhaps fails, when our emotional, and yes, even spiritual strength leaves us broken and vulnerable. Isn’t this exactly what Solzhenitzyn discovered? When he had nothing left in himself, the building block of faith was still there. And that building block awakened within him that second great cornerstone of spirituality: the gift of hop

Gracious God, create within us that hope which cannot and will not disappoint us, no matter how deep our hunger, how great our fear, how difficult the situation. Pour your love into our hearts that we may treasure the hope you alone can instill.

The Rev. Tom Graf is pastor of St. James the Fisherman Episcopal Church in Islamorada. He can be reached at tomgraf7@gmail.com.

This story was originally published August 18, 2016 at 12:50 PM with the headline "Wishful thinking is not hope."