Different types of Hope

As I’ve listened to people recently, my attention has been drawn to the different types of hope that we experience. 

What I have noticed is that there is a hope that something or someone will become what we would like it, or them, to be. 

This is a hope that leaves us hope-full.  

When full of such hope we are able to take the risk of engaging with new people/activities/places.  

This hope literally fuels our ability to continue participating in life; having a go, taking risks, accepting opportunities without knowing the outcome and ultimately, continuing to live.  

The more we utilise our hope in this way, the more we learn that even when things do not evolve in the way we had hoped, we still learn and grow.  This knowledge allows us to retain the necessary hope to continue engaging with what life has to offer despite the inevitable disappointments.   

We know that we win some and we lose some but either way, we refuse to stop playing this great game of life.  

This hope could be called healthy but realistic.

Quite simply, this hope enables us to continue living, learning and loving.

This hope keeps us alive.

But there is another kind of hope that does quite the opposite.  

This other type of hope is based on the desire for someone, something or some place that used to be life giving and enhancing but no longer is, to return to being so.  

This is a hope that if left unfulfilled for prolonged periods, can leave us hope-less.

The longer we remain with someone, something or some place that renders us stuck in a cycle of hope followed by disappointment, the more hope-less we become as our hope is literally drained from us.  

In turn, the less hope we are left with, the less empowered we become to take the risk of seeking that which we need, elsewhere.  

We may instead become stuck to the very person/place/thing that is draining us of the hope required to keep engaging with the healthy changes that life offers.

Consequently we may begin to disengage from our hope-lessness and even from life itself.  

We may cease to really live, learn or love.

This hope could be called misplaced or a false hope.

It is a hope that torments us leaving us unwell.

Fortunately, should we find ourselves in such a horrendous position, there is a God in whom we can always place our hope.

For He is the God we can go to again and again and in whom we will find the necessary hope, strength, courage and support to face and address any situation that is stealing our hope.

That is a true hope.