The ever-present temptation towards apathy or resignation is the reason hope is so daring and risky. Hope awakens us to wonder, dreams, possibilities, courage and belief. These forms of imagining will always be slightly or greatly painful once we actually face that we live “east of Eden and west of Heaven.” Or to put it another way as Samuel Beckett said, “You’re on earth. There’s no cure for that.”

The ever-present temptation towards apathy or resignation is the reason hope is so daring and risky.

We struggle to live well and fully between some day and not yet. Therefore, to hope daringly also means we will sometimes have to grieve deeply. Therein lies struggle.

Hope is an inborn gift that initiates our strength to stay in the struggle where we live, on earth, until we arrive in God’s full presence, in heaven. Because hope is painful, it must be sustained and nourished by others and God, so we have the strength to continue to daringly hope. This relational sustenance allows us to persevere with faith in all the imaginings that we dare to step into. This same relational sustenance is also the nourishment we need to grieve until hope returns.

Hope is an inborn gift that initiates our strength to stay in the struggle on this earth.

Being in heart relationship or intimacy (into-me-see) with God and others allows others to celebrate our “reaching,” and also allows them to aid us in our grief if the “reach” turns to loss.

My hope for us this year is that we will increase our intimacy, increase our confidants, and especially increase our closeness to God so that we can struggle well between someday and not yet. We are created to hope—even in a place of great pain.

Daring to hope allows us to press on towards where we are created to arrive.

Apathy is no cure and resignation is no answer. Daring to hope allows us to press on towards where we are created to arrive. We need intimate relationship to sustain us in the journey.