But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation. 1 THESSALONIANS 5:8
“Don’t worry about it. Things will be fine.” They will, of course! Well, sometimes. And sometimes that admonition can be much-needed advice, especially if we’re tempted to scrupulosity or a drive to control.
But not always. For it just might be that the voice encouraging us to just relax and accept things as they are is worth a skeptical question or two. For hope and trust in the Lord isn’t a call to inaction. Much less does hope invite us to accept everything that happens in the course of our lives or even our day as just “what is supposed to happen” with a shrug.
Hope, like faith and charity, is an active virtue. The “hope for salvation” Paul encourages is not just about waiting around. It enables us to say yes in patient acceptance, but it also enables us to say no to what is pulling us and others away from the Lord. Hope, in fact, can give us the strength to make hard decisions and make big changes. Amid the battle that is, indeed, life, hope does arm us, protecting us against despair—which is the great enemy, always, of hope.
Lord, strengthen me with hope today.
Excerpted from Hope: An Anchor for the Soul, 30 Daily Devotions by Amy Welborn. ©2024 Creative Communications for the Parish. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
