The Experience of Hope and Faith

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

~Hebrews 11:1 (NRSV)

In a world seeking signs,

Evidence of the physical,

Hope forever shines,

In the shape of a miracle.

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We, persons of the ordinary human variety, so easily run with the world’s way. It’s our biological and learned tendency. And as we look for evidence of the physical, we tend to leave hope on the shelf. All the potential of hope is useless to us; this because we preferred to pass up on faith.

Yet, we can as easily invest in Divine fortune.

The Interdependence Of Faith And Hope

Faith and hope are products of the same process; they are sibling sisters with the same intent; they are brothers in arms.

They both work in the reverse to logic—the human sense. They are ideas from God. They are gifts of the Divine, engorged with possibility and swelling with all things truly spiritual. As they intertwine in process they add up to the power of love.

The interdependence of faith and hope presents in much the same way as the chicken-and-the-egg situation does.

What comes first? Faith presumably. But an expression of faith is powered by hope, for what sensible action of faith is devoid of hope? But hope, as a state of being, cannot be unless it is expressed: faith is a verb. It must be enacted.

Faith needs hope just as hope needs faith—and the lived life needs them both.

Making The Most Of Faith And Hope

Neither of these is particularly easy. To express our faith, which relies on our hope, both of which are sponsored by God, requires a risk seemingly against ourselves. We see not what we hope for. We are actually acting against the evidence. It seems futile to the external observer, and maybe even to us.

But faith has the patience of hope about it. It wrangles with the sensation of hopelessness and entertains the possibility, many times, that the miracle hoped-for will not come. But it still proceeds, in spite of the minds lies and the weakness of our doubting hearts. It knows that faith in a hope is the only true reward.

Making the most of faith and hope is simply trusting in a good future. There is no simple way to do that except patiently endure.

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Faith is the agency toward hope, which is about believing in miracles. And hope isn’t disappointed. Because it doesn’t give up, hope prefers to invest in faith. And hope and faith meander on until the miracle comes, at last, into view.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.