You Can't Delegate Hope.

Extracted from John Ortberg on Hope Management
Optimism is the one responsibility no leader should delegate.

The church is in the hope business. We of all people ought to be known most for our hope; because our hope is founded on something deeper than human ability or wishful thinking. Martin Luther King was fond of citing Reinhold Niebuhr's distinction between hope and optimism. Optimism believes in progress; that circumstances will get better. Hope, however, is is built on the conviction that another reality, another Kingdom, already exists. And so hope endures when hype fades.

And yet, even ministry can be hope-draining. Churches can become places of cynicism, resistance, and pessimism. Spiritual resistance, my own sinfulness, and the sheer gravitational pull of the status quo can drain away the power to dream. Both hope and pessimism are deeply contagious. And no one is more infectious than a leader.

For this reason I've realized that I must learn the art of hope management. I must learn about the activities and practices and people who build hope, as well as the activities and practices and people who drain hope.

When I looked back at my old journals it came as a surprise to me how often they were simply chronicles of failure. I would write down how I felt inadequate as a pastor, incompetent as a dad, and not-all-that-great as a Christian in general. These weren't so much confessions with absolution and forgiveness; they were vague general expressions of discouragement that left me more discouraged. They were the opposite of what David did when he "encouraged himself in the Lord." I was "discouraging myself in the Lord."

So now I try to steward my hope; not by avoiding thinking about my sin, but trying to confess it, learn from it, and live in the reality of newness and grace. I have identified people in my life who breathe energy and hope into me, and I try to get large doses of time with them—especially on Mondays.

Psychologist Martin Seligman, though not religious himself, notes that not only does faith produce hopeful people, but more robust faith produces more robust hope. For all the great hopers are mystics. And long before FDR said we have nothing to fear but fear itself, a great hoper known as Julian of Norwich sang her song from the depths of the Black Plague-infested fourteenth century:

But all shall be well,
And all shall be well,
And all manner of things shall be well…
He did not say, "You shall know no storms, no travails, no disease,"
He said, "You shall not be overcome."

You can't delegate hope.

Thank God for this timely, beautiful article. :) Oh... *strokes chin* Hope! Is that why God sent me to this wonderful church called Hope?

I think God has a far better sense of humour than I give Him credit for!

And confidence that arises from hope, which in turn arises from faith in God. As I shared last time, confidence is the outwards expression of my faith in a great God.

And hope is the God-given anchor for our souls, one that keeps us steady in the stormy seas of life. Or as the older Malays would like to say, "Friend, jangan tension lah... relac! Don't be scared lah... Maintain balan! Ah... that's the spirit!" :)

I think I need to grow in hope. So! :) A Heart of Hope it is.

Edited to add:
Oh! Hmm... "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for."

And St. Paul wrote: "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love..."

Hope. Why does hope make it into the top three Christian virtues? It suggests that hope is distinct from faith, and yet not separate.

Think all these three virtues are interlinked... seems like a trinity of sorts! :)

From Merriam-Webster:
hope:
intransitive verb
1: to cherish a desire with anticipation
2 (archaic) : trust
transitive verb
1: to desire with expectation of obtainment
2: to expect with confidence : trust

faith:
1 a: allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty
b(1): fidelity to one's promises
(2): sincerity of intentions

2 a(1): belief and trust in and loyalty to God
(2): belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion

b(1): firm belief in something for which there is no proof
(2): complete trust
3: something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs

1 Cor 13:13 (Amplified Bible)
And so faith, hope, love abide [faith--conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope--joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love--true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.