WITH US, THERE’S A SAYING,La esperanza muere ultima. Hope dies last. You can’t lose hope. If you lose hope, you lose everything.Jessie de la Cruz, retired migrant farm worker, quoted in Studs Terkel, Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Troubled Times
A TRUE CHRISTIAN should have but one fear—lest he should not hope enough.Walter Elliot, The Spiritual Life
THERE ARE NONE in the humanly “down” position so low that they cannot be lifted up by entering God’s order, and none in the humanly “up” position so high that they can disregard God’s point of view on their lives. The barren, the widow, the orphan, the eunuch, the alien, all models of human hopelessness, are fruitful and secure in God’s care.Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy
HOPE WITHOUT PATIENCE results in the illusion of optimism or, more terrifying, the desperation of fanaticism. The hope necessary to initiate us into the adventure must be schooled by patience if the adventure is to be sustained. Through patience, we learn to continue to hope, even though our hope seems to offer little chance of fulfillment. … Yet patience equally requires hope, for without hope, patience too easily accepts the world and the self for what it is, rather than what it can or should be.Stanley Hauerwas, A Community of Character
THE DIFFERENCES between black folk and white folk are not blood or color, and the ties that bind us are deeper than those that separate us. The common road of hope, which we all traveled, has brought us into a stronger kinship than any words, laws, or legal claims.Richard Wright, 12 Million Black Voices
HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all And sweetest in the gale is heard.Emily Dickenson, Poems
WHEN HOPE DIES, the killing begins. Hopelessness and brutality are just two sides of the same coin.Jurgen Moltmann, In the End—The Beginning: The Life of Hope
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT distinctions I have learned in the course of reflection on Jewish history is the difference between optimism and hope. Optimism is the belief that things will get better. Hope is the faith that, together, we can make things better. Optimism is a passive virtue; hope, an active one. It takes no courage to be an optimist, but it takes a great deal of courage to have hope.Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations
WITHIN THE EMBRACE of Christ’s wounds lies our only refuge, and our hope of glory only on the other side.Deborah Smith Douglas, “Wounded and Healed,” Weavings
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Related Elsewhere:
Hope Dies Last, The Divine Conspiracy, A Community of Character, 12 Million Black Voices, Poems are available from Amazon.com, Christianbook.com, and other book retailers.
Past Reflections columns include:
Christmas (Dec. 19, 2005)
Poetry (Dec. 12, 2005)
Grace that Surprises (Oct. 3, 2005)
Friendship (August 31, 2005)
Wisdom That Sticks (August 8, 2005)
His Body, His Blood (June 08, 2005)
On Baptism (April 25, 2005)
Discovering God (April 07, 2005)
Welcoming the Stranger (Feb. 22, 2005)
The Church and Mission (Feb. 02, 2005)
The Church (Jan. 11, 2005)
Word Made Flesh (Dec. 20, 2004)
The Way of Salvation (Nov. 08, 2004)
Sin and Evil (Oct. 18, 2004)
Teaching and Learning (Sept. 15, 2004)
Wisdom for the Road (Aug. 02, 2004)
Discipleship (July 13, 2004
Conversion (June 09, 2004)
The Outpoured Spirit (May 03, 2004)
He Is Risen (April 08, 2004)
Jesus’ Cross (March 15, 2004)
Lenten Inventory (Feb. 25, 2004)
Following the Star (Dec. 23, 2003)
Advent (Dec. 10, 2003)
Wisdom for Ministry (Nov. 10, 2003)
Discerning God’s Will (Oct. 6, 2003)
Work and Vocation (Sept. 17, 2003)
Bumper Sticker Theology (July 30, 2003)
Songs from the Soul (July 8, 2003)
Walk Humbly (May 28, 2003)
Mercy (May 8, 2004)
Cross and Resurrection (April 16, 2003)
