Subtitle: A necessary word for these tumultuous days…
We boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope (Romans 5.2b-3)
In hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Romans 8.24-25)
Hope. Not a wishful or, worse, delusional naïveté that sees things that are not there. Hope is a radically counter-intuitive expectation, which, refusing to absolutize the present, will not believe that all that can be seen is all that is. Hope can see, within the here and now of the present, the horizon of possibility.[1]
© 2022 PRA
[1] From my sermon, Dying and Living in Hope, preached with the community of The Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Virginia, April 9, 2014
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 