"I simply can't build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery, and death...I think...peace and tranquility will return again."—Anne Frank, German Diarist
Do you recall reading The Diary of Anne Frank in school? I do, and it was one of the most poignant books I've ever read. Poignant means evoking a keenly felt sense of emotion, especially of bittersweet sadness or regret. This Jewish family caught in the midst of the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany hid in plain sight for years until their abduction and transfer to the concentration camps of the Holocaust. It was a fascinating, but hard read. I recall applauding Anne's eloquence at story-telling. Even more, I admired her sense of hope amidst the most devastating of circumstances.
HOPE is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. It is also a person or thing that may help or save someone; grounds for believing that something good may happen; or a feeling of trust. I remember as I read hoping against hope that some other outcome would be granted, that the Frank family would be rescued and delivered to safety. Of course we were reading decades after their fate had been sealed. I marveled at Anne's expressions of love, laughter, and peace in the middle of the trial—how she held onto life's daily blessings despite the possibility of capture at any moment. Anne seemed to believe that everything would work out someday...even it it was not today. What she displayed was more than a teenager's naïveté; it was a lively hope.
Hope seems to be getting hard to hold onto for lots of folks these days. Things are turbulent, if not chaotic. Many are wondering what will befall us...not just here in the US but all around the world. In times like these I am reminded that this earth is not my home, that I am a citizen of Heaven (Phil. 3:20), a stranger and a pilgrim passing through.(Heb. 11:13) This Heavenly vision for Christ followers is written about by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:
18Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope". —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The writer of Hebrews also encourages our hope in the redemption and atonement found in the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, "Therefore, we who have fled to Him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls..." (Hebrews 6:18b-19a). The soul includes our mind, emotions/feelings, our will, and choices, An anchor provides stability and confidence for the ship of our soul, even when the storm is raging and the waves are crashing around us. The Rev. Desmond Tutu said, 'Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness." Hold on to hope. | 
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