Erin Bartels | Holding Onto Hope

Hope. It's a concept that can feel out of reach during tumultuous times. When our eyes and ears are flooded with the reality of national disunity and violence, a difficult family situation, broken finances, career disappointment, or frustration with ourselves for a multitude of reasons, hope can feel flimsy. Like it belongs to some other person in some other time.

But hope is something that we can have and hold on to in
any time and circumstance. And here are a few ways to help you do just that:

Develop perspective.

No matter what is happening in our own lives, it is
likely that there are others going through even more difficult circumstances. This doesn't
mean that our pain doesn't matter. It means that we are not alone. There are people out there
who understand what we’re going through because they’ve been through it—and worse.

The struggles others have experienced in the past
and in other parts of the world—war, genocide, displacement, religious persecution, lack of
medical care, and more—help our own troubles become smaller, less scary, less
insurmountable. Reading the account of a Holocaust survivor or a quadriplegic athlete is sure
to put things in perspective.

Count small blessings.

I don't believe that within every dark cloud is a silver lining. Some things are just bad. Cancer.
Familial discord. The loss of a loved one. It's not that they all have a good side to them. Yet
when we go through trials, small blessings act as stepping stones to help us cross the
turbulent waters.

A sickness can bring together far-flung family members who can hold each other up. A friendship can deepen as we pour out our hearts to each other about an unfaithful spouse or a prodigal child. A loss can cause us to drill down to the essentials of life: what we believe and the legacy we want to leave.

Celebrate beauty.

Emily Dickinson famously wrote that hope is the thing with feathers "That perches in the
soul" and naturally we imagine it to be a small bird. Birds are, I think, the loveliest creatures
on the earth to watch and to listen to. They seem to have been created with our pleasure in
mind. There is so much in this world that is beautiful, from birds to blooms to babies to
Broadway shows. When we take joy in the good things in life it buoys our spirits. And when we
look for beauty, we will find more and more of it.

In order to see beauty, though, we have to clear our
eyeline of distractions—like our ever-present smartphones. When we make a practice of
taking our noses out of our newsfeeds we will inevitably find that there is beauty in our homes,
our families, our neighborhoods, our churches, our workplaces. Unplug and reconnect with
the beautiful world around you.

Ground your hope in faith.

It's fine to hope in other people, but unfortunately other people so often let us down. A hope
that lasts is grounded not in fallible human beings, but in something higher. Something
unchanging.

Personally, I can only hold on to hope through faith
in God. When terrible things happen in this world, when I see people suffer, when I fret about
politics or cultural upheaval, the only thing that keeps perched in my soul is my belief that
someone else has everything in control when I so clearly do not. That that someone has a
plan. And I can trust it to be good.

Read hopeful books.

Life doesn't always give us happy endings, and the loose threads are not always tied up neatly
in the end. But in a good book we may find forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation, and hope
on display. Experiencing hope through a story can help us make it a practice in our own lives.

Where is your hope found? How do you keep your troubles in
perspective? What are some books that have inspired you? When did you last count your
blessings? Where do you see beauty?

A new year is upon us. It is my hope that you live it well.