Hope in our time

Blog by Emma Howarth, MitE Director of Operations

Photo: Ron Smith on Unsplash

Here we are entering into the second month of ‘lockdown’. There are many for whom life goes on, albeit in a different form, as keyworkers still go to work and provide services without which everything literally would stop: the health workers, council workers, food chain suppliers and deliverers, teachers and more; the people that we take for granted every day; the ‘everyday heroes’.

We hear inspiring stories from around the world of Captain Tom, communities pulling together, dolphins off the coast of Mumbai.  There is a lot of negative news, with the media whipping up minor details into major catastrophes and choosing to take remarks and comments out of context, but there is also the good news.

You may have been aware of the “UK’s biggest school assembly” that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, took part in on Thursday.  He could have chosen all sorts of angles for this moment; but he chose HOPE.  He said, “Hope means the certain expectation of something you don't have yet, but you will have in the future because it's been promised by God.  Hope is hope of life, hope of purpose, hope of peace, hope of justice, equality and a good future.”

This is not solely a Christian perspective; this is the perspective of all humanity.  What is life without hope?  We have anxieties and worries about our health and the health of others, empty supermarket shelves, a lack of liberty and movement but we must keep these in perspective, or they will overwhelm and consume.  No situation lasts forever and there will be an end to this.  Archbishop Justin quoted Nelson Mandela, “May your choices reflect your hopes not your fears”, so we hear that alongside hope we have choice.  We can choose to only hear negative things, fearmongers and darker thoughts or we can choose positivity, inspiration and light; we can choose hope. 

Jeremiah in the Old Testament of the Bible prophesied, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13

Personally, I find this message of hope a comfort and a blessing in times of uncertainty and trouble.  To know that God has a steady hand on what lies ahead, giving us hope and a future.  What is more God will listen to us and we will find Him. As Archbishop Justin said, the certainty is that we will have a future because God is promising it.

When I wrote to our chaplains last week, I came across a poem by a Christian writer from Minnesota which reminds us of the hope that we should never lose sight of.

So I finish by saying, keep hope burning.  Do not let it go out, for our God will hear us and we will find Him.