RAISING HOPE

What's the Big Idea?

“Finding permanent and universal causes of good events along with temporary and specific causes for misfortune is the art of hope.” (Martin E. P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness)

So What?

Hope is critical to a thriving life. It provides the energy necessary to move toward God and grow into the person he created us to be. With hope one little boy, for example, will shovel through mounds of manure convinced that with all that manure there must be a pony in there somewhere. 

We experience hope when we firmly expect that our desired goal can be achieved. We can strengthen our hope when, as good things happen in our lives, we are able to use permanent reasons to explain those good things, such as “I received the promotion due to years of skill development and work ethic.” Likewise, we can protect our hope (which is just as important but usually more difficult) when, as unfortunate events occur in our lives, we are able to attribute temporary reasons to those events, such as “I kept that argument going because I was just having a bad day.” And as a wonderful by-product of this hope, we tend to be much happier people overall. Could it be, then, that hopefulness + happiness = joy?

Notice the words of the Psalmist (chapter 33):

²⁰ We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. 

²¹ In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. 

²² May your unfailing love be with us, LORD, even as we put our hope in you. 

The Lord of Hope is our rock of permanency, the author of all good things. Anything or anyone else is temporary, shifting sand, nothing in comparison. Hope both edits the bad (as mostly fleeting) and inspires the good (as much more lasting).

  

Now What? 

When something negative happens in your life and you are tempted to assign permanent causes for it, stop and reconsider. Try to find temporary causes for it instead. Maybe the cashier was rude because he ate a bad breakfast burrito that morning, or your wife yelled at you because her boss griped at her all afternoon, or even this: the neighbor's house was destroyed by the tornado or the little girl died of leukemia because we live in a fallen, destructible, temporary (thankfully) sort of world. 

As Dr. Seligman notes above, research indicates that the more often you can find temporary causes for the negative things, as well as find permanent reasons for the positive ones, the more you protect and strengthen your hope. "And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." (Romans 5:5)


--S.a.t.S.