Life's Disguises (Hope)

October 18, 2004

A few years ago, I had the great honor of serving as Chair of the Commission on Archives and History for the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church. During that time, I compiled an encyclopedia of the 1200 Methodist churches in Mississippi for the bicentennial of Mississippi Methodism (1799-1999). I named the book, Mississippi United Methodist Churches: 200 Years of Heritage and Hope. During that bicentennial year, I spoke at many churches, and explored the depths of that word, “hope”. I found it to be an awesome, yet quite neglected, theological concept.

The Apostle Paul wrote the trilogy of abiding principles: Faith, HOPE, and Love. That places Hope in some select company. Love is “the greatest of these”, but Hope is the third side of the faith-love triangle that receives relatively little attention.

Let me share with you some of the common wisdom I discovered about Hope:

1. Hope is putting faith to work when doubting would be easier. ~Author Unknown
2. Hope is some extraordinary spiritual grace that God gives us to control our fears, not to oust them. ~Vincent McNabb
3. When the world says, "Give up,"Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."~Author Unknown
4. The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination. ~Marian Zimmer Bradley
5. You've gotta have hope. Without hope life is meaningless. Without hope life is meaning less and less. ~Author Unknown
6. Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark. ~George Iles
7. There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope. ~Baruch Spinoza
8. Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence. ~Lin Yutang
9. Some see a hopeless end, while others see an endless hope. ~Author Unknown (Put me in this group!)
10. And last, timely, but not least:
11. Once you choose hope, anything's possible. ~Christopher Reeve

I guess I practice hope, because in spite of having a hundred of those Mississippi Methodist books I still cannot give away, I wrote another one!

Hope springs eternal.