Hope may seem a little too nebulous to rely on but it is part of a famous threesome that we are all familiar with: faith, hope and love. Although we are reminded of this trinity at weddings and other auspicious occasions, we are usually cautioned that love is the most important virtue, followed by faith and so hope slips away unnoticed.

This past Friday our community enjoyed a trip to the movies to watch, “Heaven is for Real.” Pastor Burpo, father of the little boy who visited Heaven, found his own beliefs challenged by his son’s revelations. During a sermon he let a question hang in the air, “How would you live differently if you had real hope in the afterlife?”

Faith without Hope is Dead

I am sure you have asked yourselves why some people seem to thrive emotionally, seem happier and more fulfilled. No matter what happens they land on their feet. They seem to hold things together, even in the face of adversity. There is a natural law at work: thriving people thrive because they commit to things that produce inner strength and hope. Why is this so important?

We tend to think of our success as predicated on our IQ and academic standing which can lead to a good career. More recently we have been introduced to the notion that our Emotional Intelligence or EQ is a greater predictor of our success. We have all met the person who’s intrapersonal and interpersonal skills are so natural and developed that they leave a trail of accomplishments in their wake.  But this ignores something even more fundamental and that is the measure of our hope. Ray Johnson in his new book calls it the Hope Quotient.

Building hope within

In an incredible study called the Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner discovered there are five principles that all successful leaders follow. One of them is the principle of Encouraging the Heart. They discerned that it doesn’t matter what you are doing, whether it be creating a successful business, running a non-profit or holding public office, without hope you cannot succeed. Successful leaders learn how to build that hope within themselves by encouraging their own heart and in turn encouraging the hearts of their followers.

It’s a well-established fact that you can live 40 days without food, about three days without water, a few minutes without air – but not a single second without hope.  Without hope life is not really worth living.

• The greatest gift you can give your family is hope
• The greatest gift you can give your friends is hope
• The greatest gift you can give your neighbors is hope
• The greatest gift you can give your coworkers is hope

Try it out this week. Wherever you go share a little hope: tell someone how great they look.  Compliment a co-worker or your child on a job well done.

If you are not convinced you can try this mental exercise. Imagine yourself walking into your local Starbucks. You see two friends sitting at opposite ends of the café. One friend is always positive and hopeful and the other is the kind of person you sit down with and find yourself listening to a litany of life’s woes. Who do you walk toward?

In the presence of hope,
Courage replaces fear;
Love replaces selfishness and
Possibilities chase away depression.

Increase hope by 10 percent to improve your life.

We approach hope like we approach many things in our lives, as an all or nothing proposition. For example, I can’t follow a diet perfectly so you know what, I just won’t diet! Or, I don’t have time to study all I’m meant to study for the test, so there’s no point in my attempting to read any of the books!

We have all been caught in that trap at some time or another. Ray Johnson explains that you don’t have to be bursting with hope to develop faith; you just need to nudge your Hope Quotient (HQ) up 10% to experience a measurable difference because hope does four very important things:

1. Hope Liberates: it releases you from your past. God’s love is parental love and the distinguishing characteristic of parental love is that it allows you to begin again. Perhaps you feel unworthy but that’s not how God sees you. Think about the time Jesus came across a group of people about to stone an adulteress woman. He didn’t condemn, nevertheless, he challenged the accusers by suggesting that “he who is without sin may cast the first stone.” One by one the people left. Jesus turned to the woman and said, “Go and sin no more.” God is a God of second chances.
2. Hope motivates: it helps you bounce back and try again. Hope looks at what can be instead of what is…You start – you get going.
3. Hope initiates: it sets you free to dream and try something new.
4. Hope activates: it’s the fuel that makes the world a better place.

There is a lot of power in just one person having hope.

 “A hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”- Proverbs 13:12

Life on empty

We are all going to hit rock bottom at some point or another but whether you stay on the bottom or have the ability to bob back up to the surface has everything to do with hope. Yet most of the time we run on empty, and there is only so long one can keep going on empty.  Here is an incredible story that illustrates this point:

Francis Gary Powers was a pilot of a U2 spy plane. On May 1^st 1960 he took off from Pakistan to fly a reconnaissance mission over the Soviet Union, but was downed by a surface to air missile. After being in a soviet prison for 2 years he was swapped for a KGB master spy. Back in the USA he became a test pilot for Lockheed. Later he got a job flying a helicopter for an LA TV news station, but lost his life in a crash because he tried to fly too long on empty.

You might think that is insane but we do the same thing on a regular basis. We fly on empty risking everything because it seems like it’s too much to stop and refuel. I’ve done it. You’ve done it but it is a dangerous way to live. When you are running on empty you are much more likely to:

• Experience to toxic emotions;
• Snap at someone
• Become irrationally angry
• Become paralyzed by fear
• Be inhibited by anxiety
• Flounder in discouragement

And before you know it you have lost all hope.

When you recognize you are empty and have lost all hope that is the time to take stock and decide to hold onto hope.

Fueling hope in a hopeless world starts by:

1. Identifying that your own growth is a priority

I’m too busy to even think about where I’m at or what I need to do next in terms of my spiritual growth. Ignore your own needs. Do you have goals so that you feel hope in your life and that you are moving forward.

2. Taking time to refocus on God

There is great benefit in learning Bible verses because that is what comes to you when you are in trouble. Even Jesus relied on this. If you read his words written in New Testament he makes so many references to teachings from the Old Testament. He found strength in God’s words in times of trial. There are all kinds of voices you can listen to and finding hope is about paying attention to the right voices.

3. Build great relationships

In our culture loneliness is rampant. We are all wired in but don’t necessarily have strong connections. We need good friends, especially when we feel depleted. A friend is someone who can believe in you or have hope for you when you don’t have hope in yourself.

“If one falls down, his friend can help him up.” Ecclesiastes 4:10

Hope is future focused

“Beware of spending too much time looking back at what you once were when God wants you to become something you have never been.”  Oswald Chambers

This is the power that was at the core of Jesus’ ministry and what draws us to him. Think about it. His disciples were the left overs of society. He had a tax collector who Jews despised and his disciple Thomas was nicknamed doubting Thomas. Peter was forever putting his foot in his mouth and Judas lost so much hope that he ended up selling Jesus out for 30 shillings.

He had a radical ministry based on hope. He had hope for his rag tag group. He famously quoted, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

Our hope comes in seeing ourselves as God sees us. It means we have to give up what we see in favor of what God sees in us. To do so is to reverse the fallen nature that has trapped us. We don’t really have hope that we can become free of the remains of the fall in our lives. But God believes we can when we let go of false images of ourselves and see ourselves through God’s eyes. If God were to describe you what would he say?

I really believe that if you pray hard enough, with enough sincerity that God will answer your prayers. This week I want to ask that you pray to hear God’s voice about who you are to Him, beyond your own conception of yourself.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.”

Despite what is in front of you now, God has a plan for you – a good plan. Maybe you don’t have the relationship you hope for yet but it is in God’s plan. We need to learn to live with the quiet assurance that our lives will prosper because they are filled by hope.