Daily Lesson for March 11, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from the book of Romans chapter 5 verses 3 through 5:

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint. 

When we say the word "hope" most people think of something like optimism -- the notion that if we were to set out to do something then we could do it. But hope, according to Paul, is not what we have at the beginning of some difficult journey or undertaking but is rather the substance of what we have within us as a result of the difficult way. In other words, hope is not what we start out with but rather what we end up with as we endure the suffering and sorrows, heartaches and disappointments of life.

Brene Brown, a sociologist at the University of Houston, has studied hopeful people and learned that hope is really a way of thinking -- not a mere feeling that something might be possible, but rather a choice and way of thinking. Even more, Brown's work shows that hope can be learned. We can learn to be hope-full by watching and emulating other hopeful people. 

There are so many in my life whose lives have taught me how to hope. Maya Angelou, Desmond Tutu, and my own mother are people I continually read, listen to, and watch and learn hope from. Hymns like "It is Well with My Soul" and some of the deep African-American spirituals like "There is a Balm in Gilead" teach me hope. The life of John Newton, who wrote "Amazing Grace" reminds me there is hope for even the vilest wretch to be redeemed. A woman at my church fighting cancer has showed us all how to hope for years.

"Hold your hopes," Dr. King used to say; and in hearing him say it the people knew they were listing to a man whose own hope did not come from itself, but rested on the shoulders of many, many generations' of suffering, endurance, and character.