Hope and Assurance

Hope is a virtue, which means it aids, abets, and bears goodness in the world. Yet hopefulness, like so many of the other virtues, is easily derided and denied. Hopefulness can be put down as unrealistic, or even as wish fulfillment. But hopefulness is not based in our hopes for shiny things or good parking spaces.

Hopefulness is a generous way of living. There’s a lot of allowance in hopefulness, one that accepts and works with imperfection, that encourages learning, innovating, and faithfully risking. When we’re living in the spiritual habit of hopefulness, we can fail and not be failures, make mistakes and not be mistakes. Why?

Hopefulness grants us a future, a way of learning and changing from troubles now to something better tomorrow. That conversation turned into a fight and I’m sorry about it now. What can I learn? How might I repair this relationship? What can I do differently next time? Hopefulness is a generosity of spirit that gives enormous blessings, inviting us into compassionate change and graciousness with one another and ourselves.

Hopefulness is a way of living in wonderment. When we practice hopefulness, we’re practicing anticipating the next wow moment, surprising awe, laughing amazement. Hopeful people live asking, “What wonderful will we meet today?” Hopeful people also tend to find those moments of wow, too, and express thanks for and cherish those times. Wow! The butterfly emerged from its chrysalis. Thank you! Will there be another today? Wow! Helping out at the library was great yesterday. Thanks! I wonder how I can serve today?

Hopefulness grows with true joy, in the heart of humble assurance. Hope is often confused with “I want.” Joy is often confused with “Yay! I have what I want!” Assurance is often confused with arrogance (“I count for more.”) Yet hopefulness, joy, and assurance are humble, steadfast, and very different from their false counterparts. The assurance that we are loved and loveable, that we have something to give to the greater good, that we are already here and belong to the whole nourishes hopefulness and joy. There isn’t any up/down positioning in that assurance, only possibilities of what we are each and all to do with these gifts we have, with the lives we live. Shall we contribute to goodness today and every day? I hope so.