A Season of Hope
[Read Romans 8:24-25]
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Hope can be as simple as a youthful passion that allows us to be optimistic about our future or a more challenging theological virtue through which we anticipate the real experience of the fullness of God. But hope is always accompanied by a measure of uncertainty. Faith allows us to cope with that uncertainty. In Hebrews we are told “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (11:1). Faith inspires us to continue to hope and warrants the patience with which we wait for our hopes to be realized.
As a hospital chaplain I regularly get to witness hope as our patients cope with the uncertainty of their situation. Hope sustains them as they wait for test results, or for a surgical procedure, or, these days, as they wait to be reunited with family and friends. But hope paired with faith is most vivid as patients wait to die.
Spending time with someone who is nearing the end of their life can be a heavy burden, but it can also be a great blessing. As they come to realize that death is getting near, I often ask if they are afraid, prepared to provide comfort if they are. But the response I most frequently get is a resolute “I am not.” In those three simple words I see the presence of hope made sure by faith, and that dying patient has become my comforter, and I am humbled.
Chaplain John Hauser
Door County Medical Center
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Hope can be as simple as a youthful passion that allows us to be optimistic about our future or a more challenging theological virtue through which we anticipate the real experience of the fullness of God. But hope is always accompanied by a measure of uncertainty. Faith allows us to cope with that uncertainty. In Hebrews we are told “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (11:1). Faith inspires us to continue to hope and warrants the patience with which we wait for our hopes to be realized.
As a hospital chaplain I regularly get to witness hope as our patients cope with the uncertainty of their situation. Hope sustains them as they wait for test results, or for a surgical procedure, or, these days, as they wait to be reunited with family and friends. But hope paired with faith is most vivid as patients wait to die.
Spending time with someone who is nearing the end of their life can be a heavy burden, but it can also be a great blessing. As they come to realize that death is getting near, I often ask if they are afraid, prepared to provide comfort if they are. But the response I most frequently get is a resolute “I am not.” In those three simple words I see the presence of hope made sure by faith, and that dying patient has become my comforter, and I am humbled.
Chaplain John Hauser
Door County Medical Center
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