Thoughts on "hope"...

I have been thinking about hope lately. How hope is defined, how we find hope, and who can really offer us hope. I came into my local coffee house today to find they were selling "inauguration" cookies. The lovely cookies had one word written on them--hope. This has become a word strangely synonymous with our soon-to-be president, and I'm not totally sure how I feel about that. On one hand, I think it is good to hope--good to hope that things can and will get better. Good to hope that people really can make a difference. Good to hope that traditions, mindsets, obstacles can change. I find it a good thing to hope for all of these. But I also worry about hope. Worry that sometimes we put all of our hope in people, circumstances, words. I'm not sure that something as powerful and vital as hope can be managed by something as small as a person. Or even a group of people. Partly I think this because hopes are so easily dashed and regaining hope is so hard. So I worry about putting hope in a person. And even if our new leader is able to fulfill all that we hope for him, is it enough? Can hope--something that is so insatiable--ever be fulfilled by anything in the temporary, unpredictable world full of flawed humans? And when hopes are dashed, what then? I pray with every fiber of my being that Obama is able to turn things around--that he brings in a new era and that my generation will regain hope in America, politics, humanity. But what happens when a flawed human eventually does what flawed humans do? What happens when he makes a mistake, honest or otherwise? If he is the poster child for hope and he fails, what happens to hope?

As a Christian, I believe hopes can only be satisfied in a realm beyond the physical world. And I believe that only the One who created us with the desperate need to hope and have hopes fulfilled can truly meet all that we hope for. (Some other day, probably when I am once again surrounded by rain and am full of cold medicine, I will tackle my thoughts on the constant state of hope and expectation that we find ourselves in.) I sit here thinking that the only way for us to continue to have the courage to hope--to take the huge risk of placing our hearts in such a scary position, is to know that He who we hope in and for is the One who never fails, who never leaves us, who isn't part of the flawed, sinful, disappointing world we find ourselves in. So there's that. I struggle daily to place my hope in Him. To believe that He is in charge of this world. That my hopes for both the simple/physical things (completing my marathon training, overcoming my fear of failing) and the spiritual/complex (a heart's healing, a selfless mindset) are not wasted when placed in Him. I hope with assurance that He has already written the end to my story and the conclusion of this crazy tale of humanity that I am such a tiny part of.