Thought Picnic: More than hope in living

We are not hopeless

Our Lenten study began with the question, “Can the dead live again?” It centred on the story of Job, his suffering, and a narrative of man's mortality against the nature of trees that spring up from a seeming hopeless death into new life.

In Christian hope we have a place, a destination, and a promise; death is not the end of the story, but eternal life brings the life of God into our existence and present, not in the bye-and-bye, but from the moment we accept Jesus Christ as our personal lord and saviour, here on earth, in the now.

Hope is an anchor

Comparing optimism to hope, optimism is a feeling, and hope is an anchor; I am optimistic about something, but I hope to do, get, achieve, realise, sometime that has focus, borne of my imagination and what my faith can work on. "For faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." [Bible Hub: Hebrews 11:1]

Giving AI a look-in on my blog, this is an overview. “Hope is the belief that you can make things better, while optimism is the belief that things will get better. Hope is an active process that involves setting and working towards goals, while optimism is a passive thought pattern.”

Hope versus Optimism from a Generative AI perspective. (Click to enlarge.)

I can work towards extraordinary goals based on the promises of God from what God has said in His Word, that is why the Bible matters to me and listening to both the Word of God and sermon inspired by the Word of God give me the confidence that life is considerably more than existing like another living thing.

Hope lives for new life

However, as we discussed these topics, I found that certain personal experiences are quite difficult to articulate; with survival or the passage of time, the recounts are raw with deep emotion, that what we left behind still grabs us in ways that memory overwhelms the present as if we are still with that human experience.

Yet, that does not mean optimism is not meaningful, for in all the aspects of adversity I have encountered, I always had one saying in Yoruba that tells me this too will pass, “A ma fi pàtàn ni.” This translates loosely to, “These too will become stories.” I am thankful that my past does not choke me of the gratitude for having some experiences behind me.

Of cancer twice or of deaths of people and close to me, whilst amid the experience, none of it is pleasant, for the hope ahead that these would again become stories to be told in recognition of the amazing human spirit sustained by the mercy, grace, and love of God. We can be full of hope, and I am full of hope. Can the dead live again? Yes!