Living in the Tension: How to Choose Daily Hope

I wish I could say that I am a positive, hopeful person. The kind of cheery, smiley person who walks into situations and finds the silver lining. But the truth is that, most of the time, I am actually pretty negative and somewhat pessimistic. I’m working on it.

I tend to focus on what’s wrong or what’s missing. While this has been helpful in some work scenarios, because I can zero in on problems and work hard to fix them, in day-to-day life it can be taxing to always notice what’s wrong. This innate negativity or pessimism has makes it hard for me to be hopeful.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, hope, as a noun, means a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. As a verb, it means to want something to happen or be the case.

Essentially, hope occurs when things are not yet the way we want them to be, but we want, or even expect, them to get there.

For Christians, this can apply to so many parts of our lives. We look at the hurt and pain of this world, and we hope for something different, for love to win, for people to be cared for and protected. We look at the promise of heaven and want to see it come to pass. We hope for our days, for ourselves. We hope that we will find patience towards the people around us. That we are living up to our potential. That we will be a light in the world.

But what does that actually look like? What does it mean to have hope when life doesn’t match up to what we are hoping for?

As a negative person, it takes concentrated effort to live with hope. Let me share with you what I have learned throughout my journey.

Living with hope means learning to live in the tension.

Hope is confidence in what we can’t yet see. So we have to learn to be okay with the fact that not everything is as it should be right now. But that doesn’t mean it won’t ever be made right.

Living with hope means granting grace to yourself, and to everyone else.

In order to hold onto hope, we must recognize that not everything will go the way we want it to every time. But that doesn’t mean we should give up our hope!

Living with hope means naming what you are hoping for.

I can get so easily swayed into having hope in my friends, my bank account, or even my own ability to do everything. But all of those things will let me down. The only hope that will never let me down is my hope in Jesus. This is why aligning my hope with my faith is vital.

Having hope every day is a battle. Between the news cycle, the exhaustion of living, and the weariness of the world, hope can feel like it’s just not enough. But it is not the power of our own hope that we hold on to. Rather, it is in the promises where we have placed our hope that we find a way through.

This will take intentional choices every day to live in the tension, give grace, and keep looking to Jesus, who is our true hope.

Scripture for Meditation:

“We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizadek.” - Hebrews 6:18-20 MSG

Prompts for journaling or discussion:

1. Are you a naturally hopeful person or not? How does this impact your day-to-day life?

2. What does it mean for you to live in the tension of hope?

3. Where are you placing your hope right now? Be honest with yourself.

4. How can you make an intentional choice today to act in hope?