The Essentials: Hope

This Sunday, we will look into the nuanced meaning of the often-used word hope. We use it in every day casual conversation often without thinking of its true spirit-filled power. “I hope my team wins the game.” “I hope I get into that college or get that raise.” We often view hope as a sort of wishful thinking, but the spiritual practice of hope is usually not learned when life is working out just fine. How do you hang on to hope, when everything confirms around you that life is hopeless and that the journey is too hard? Naomi felt this pain and cries to God in anguish for continuing to live through the death of her husband and sons. It is on God that she places the blame of her anguish, so much so that she changes her name to Mara, meaning bitter. How do we find hope when all that’s left is bitterness and anger? How can the journey of Naomi and Ruth, a living testimony of faith, hope and love lived out in this world, help us understand how to cling to the hope of a continued, enveloping, growth-filled journey when all we see is darkness?