Hanging On To Hope
I spent most of the month of February cleaning out my elderly
parent’s home in Florida. I was the last one out of the house after the
movers and cleaners left, and I wandered around looking in each of the
rooms, making sure nothing had been left behind. I stopped in the Lanai
room off the kitchen and looked up above the bank of windows facing the
back yard. Hanging centered above the windows was a cluster of letters
spelling out the word “hope.” My first response to seeing it there was
to reach up and remove it from the wall, realizing it was something we
left behind. Thinking it would come off the wall easily I grabbed on to
it with one hand. It would not budge. I tugged on it a little more,
thinking it might just be stuck on the nail in the wall, and still it
would not budge. Not wanting to harm the wall, I decided to leave it
where it was. As I took one more look at the “hope that could not be
taken down,” I realized that this was a lovely picture of the hope we
are given from God. No matter what happens, that hope of something
better coming will sustain us and will not be budged. That afternoon was
the close of what had been a very difficult month – a month where, on
many days, I’d found hope elusive. I felt like God sent me a personal
message “to hang in there.”
While we all need that personal reminder from day to day that God is involved in our daily lives and has promised us that hoping is not a futile pursuit, I think churches need that reminder, too. With concerns about budgets, shrinking attendance, lack of young adults, and a world where justice seems in short supply, it is easy for our faith communities to become anxious places. Anxious places are not attractive places, and can easily turn into toxic places as people begin to turn inward to protect their own interests. Churches need to remember that we know the end of the story – God wins. Now, that doesn’t mean that the church won’t go through hard times or that things will always be easy or that things won’t get worse before they get better. But what it does mean is that hope doesn’t budge – the promise persists and because of that, we don’t need to worry or fret. Let’s remember those “lilies of the field” Jesus talked about. Because of God’s promises, the church has the luxury of being an unanxious presence in an increasingly anxious world. And when we’re not worried about ourselves, we find it so much easier to be opening and welcoming to all the others who cross our paths.
Yesterday, I was reading an article by Dr. Kenda Creasy, Dean from Princeton Theological Seminary. In that article, she related a story about herself. She explained that she was talking to a friend and mentor about some things in her life about which she was anxious and concerned. That friend responded by saying something like, “Kenda, you are living like you don’t believe God exists.” This is what we do in our churches when we allow despair and anxiety to dominate our thinking instead of hope – we live like we don’t believe the story we’re asking others to believe. Instead, we need to hang on to the hope that will not budge.
Sparking Ministry Conversations
Would people describe your church as a hopeful church? If so, why? What are the characteristics of a hopeful church?
About the Author
The Rev. Dr. Ivy Beckwith is the Faith Formation Team Leader for the United Church of Christ. Ivy and her team want to hear your stories about the transformative ideas your church has implemented in the area of faith formation. She can be reached at beckwithi@ucc.org or at 216-736-3875.
While we all need that personal reminder from day to day that God is involved in our daily lives and has promised us that hoping is not a futile pursuit, I think churches need that reminder, too. With concerns about budgets, shrinking attendance, lack of young adults, and a world where justice seems in short supply, it is easy for our faith communities to become anxious places. Anxious places are not attractive places, and can easily turn into toxic places as people begin to turn inward to protect their own interests. Churches need to remember that we know the end of the story – God wins. Now, that doesn’t mean that the church won’t go through hard times or that things will always be easy or that things won’t get worse before they get better. But what it does mean is that hope doesn’t budge – the promise persists and because of that, we don’t need to worry or fret. Let’s remember those “lilies of the field” Jesus talked about. Because of God’s promises, the church has the luxury of being an unanxious presence in an increasingly anxious world. And when we’re not worried about ourselves, we find it so much easier to be opening and welcoming to all the others who cross our paths.
Yesterday, I was reading an article by Dr. Kenda Creasy, Dean from Princeton Theological Seminary. In that article, she related a story about herself. She explained that she was talking to a friend and mentor about some things in her life about which she was anxious and concerned. That friend responded by saying something like, “Kenda, you are living like you don’t believe God exists.” This is what we do in our churches when we allow despair and anxiety to dominate our thinking instead of hope – we live like we don’t believe the story we’re asking others to believe. Instead, we need to hang on to the hope that will not budge.
Sparking Ministry Conversations
Would people describe your church as a hopeful church? If so, why? What are the characteristics of a hopeful church?
About the AuthorThe Rev. Dr. Ivy Beckwith is the Faith Formation Team Leader for the United Church of Christ. Ivy and her team want to hear your stories about the transformative ideas your church has implemented in the area of faith formation. She can be reached at beckwithi@ucc.org or at 216-736-3875.
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