Trouble comes to us all, if we live long enough: the loss of a loved one, an unexpected illness, random violence, loss of a job or a sense of our worth. Everyone will know heartache sometime. But the painful experience comes with a choice: will we stay stuck in the present in our despair, or will we choose to hope in the God who has rescued us so many times before?
In Hope: It’s More Than Wishful Thinking, contributors including Parker Palmer, Walter Brueggemann, Joan Chittister and Jim Wallis persuade us that hope is not just for the afterlife, but is also a part of our life now. Christian hope helps us trust that we’ll survive our dark days. It reminds us that just as God has been with us before, God will remain with us forever.
QUOTES:
“What I have come to see is that there is nothing more important to human beings than hope. . . . People usually do not survive long without hope. They cannot, because hope is the very heart of a human being.” Michael Downey
“Hope is precisely what we have when we do not have something. Hope is not the same thing as optimism that things will go our way, or turn out well. It is rather the certainty that something makes sense, is worth the cost, regardless of how it might turn out.” Michael Downey
“When tragedy strikes, when trouble comes, when life disappoints us, we stand at the crossroads between hope and despair, torn and hurting. Despair cements us in the present. Hope sends us dancing around dark corners trusting in a tomorrow we cannot see because of the multiple pasts of life which we cannot forget.” Joan Chittister
