Krista Tippett grew up in a highly religious household. But, upon reflection, she isn’t so sure she’d say it was a highly spiritual household. That gap, largely articulated by a lack of deep listening and attention, drew her focus to the spiritual undercurrents of modern life, which she has explored through her show On Being for more than 20 years.

On a recent episode of The Bulletin, Tippett considered another gap she’s drawn to ponder: the space between wishful thinking and hope.

“Hope is a muscle,” she says. For Tippett, hope is grounded in reality. It’s “a leap of imagination in the sense that you are insisting on a better possibility. And human beings have done this across time. This is how we move forward. You throw your life behind that possibility.”

As we consider the circumstances in our lives or even the state of the world, perhaps wishing we could change them, may we consider what it means to live by the truth that our hope is secure in Christ. And in doing so, may we find ourselves eager to exercise that muscle of hope, confident that in doing so, we are building toward something beautiful.