Hope Actualized

Hope is not abstract or wishful thinking. Hope is real and influences one’s beliefs, thoughts, and behavior. An inert desire for wonderful expectations is but a fantasy. True hope, on the other hand, stirs action. Hope strengthens one’s beliefs, transforms thoughts, and motivates behavior. Hope is a gift but a gift that needs to be nurtured and practised to realise its full potential. 

So, what does one need to do to nurture the gift of hope? Charles R. Snyder, a positive psychologist, offers a framework to understand hope and suggests practices that one can learn to grow in hope. Snyder proposes three components of hope — goal, agency, and pathways.[1]

Goal — The Direction of Hope

Through his research, Snyder discovered that people who had hope “were seeking a goal”.[2] People who are not trying to get something done, to achieve, to overcome, or to actualize do not really need hope. So, the first thing individuals need to identify is their challenging yet realistic goal. 

Agency — The Willpower of Hope

           Agency is the cognitive perception that a goal can be attained through one’s efforts along with the resolve to do so.[3] This perceptual belief focuses cognitive and physical energy and enables the person with high hope to both begin a challenging task and to persist if the effort is blocked.[4] High agency is the will power to action, motivating self and behavior toward the realization of one’s goal. There are things which are beyond human effort and cannot be achieved without God’s intervention. But this does not mean that human efforts are worthless. Often God uses human efforts, though limited and imperfect, to bring transformation. 

Pathways — The Waypower of Hope

           The third element of hope, according to Snyder’s theory, consists of one’s ability to generate strategies to attain a goal.[5] Hope is not only believing that one day things will be bright but also working in that direction. Thus, hope involves both beliefs and actions in pursuit of the goal.[6]

           Knowing ourselves deeply can help us to surface our true goals and enhance agency and pathways to achieve them. Wallis invites us, particularly those facing very challenging and painful times, to go deeper to a more foundational and spiritual understanding of hope — one rooted in our identity as children of God — as the only thing that will see us through in the most desperate and unjust times.[7]

 

John Baptist OFM Cap.

Clinical Counselor & Psychospiritual Resource Person

York, PA, USA

Notes

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[1] Hoover-Kinsinger, Sandra, Hoping Against Hope: An Integration of the Hope Theology of Jurgen Moltmann and C.R. Snyder’s Psychology of Hope, Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 2018, Vol. 37, No. 4, 313-322.

[2] Snyder, Charles, “Hypothesis: There is Hope,” in Snyder, Charles (Ed.), Handbook of Hope: Theory, Measures, and Applications (pp. 3-19), San Diego, CA: Academic Press. 

[3] Snyder, Charles, The Psychology of Hope: You Can Get There from Here, 1994, New York, NY: The Free Press.

[4] Snyder, Charles, The Psychology of Hope: You Can Get There from Here

[5] Snyder, Charles, The Psychology of Hope: You Can Get There from Here

[6] Snyder, Charles, et al., 1998

[7] Jim Wallis, The Way of Hope

Hope Transforms the Present

Hope is future-looking and paradoxically very much rooted in the present moment. Hope cannot be reduced to the end, the final outcome that one looks forward to. The focus of hope cannot be diminished to the actualization of a goal, something solely happening eventually, in the future. Instead, the focus of true hope is the beginning: the beginning of true life, the beginning of acknowledging the role that we need to play in an adverse situation.[1] Hope is the beginning of new creation — that is precisely how we understand a hopeless situation and act in a healing and transformative way. 

Focusing on the future and hoping for brighter prospects is important. However, an emphasis on future bright expectations is not an excuse to refrain from participation in the present.[2] Rather, a robust understanding of hope should be the impetus for us to engage with problems and moments of suffering. A person of hope does not wait for God to do some magic (though this is not to deny that God does miracles) or for life-situations to transform for the better in an automatically miraculous way.[3] Rather, hope invites a person to partner with God in moving through brokenness and suffering. Hope impels us to discover the plan of God and cooperate with God right now amid suffering and hopelessness. 

A true spirit of hope propels us to nurture our lives and that of others and offers healing and courage, right now. This understanding of hope does not make us apathetic and inert onlookers, expecting something extraordinary to happen incredibly in the future. Rather, hope makes us responsible and courageous in facing difficult and painful moments of life. Hope makes us an instrument of transformative thoughts and acts. 

           Hope is not only forward-looking but also forward-moving, and therefore, transforms the present, too.[4]

 

John Baptist OFM Cap., 

Clinical Counselor & Psychospiritual Resource Person, 

York, PA, USA

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[1] Moltmann, Jurgen in Hoover-Kinsinger, Sandra, Hoping Against Hope: An Integration of the Hope Theology of Jurgen Moltmann and C.R. Snyder’s Psychology of Hope, Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 2018, Vol. 37, No. 4, 313-322.

[2] Moltmann, Jurgen, 1967, The Theology of Hope, SCM Press Ltd. 

[3] Moltmann, Jurgen, 1967, The Theology of Hope.

[4] Moltmann, Jurgen, 1967, The Theology of Hope.

Hope is a Choice!

           One can live without food for forty days, without water for four days, without air for four minutes, but without hope, one cannot live for even a second[1]. Hope is valuable, much more valuable than one might imagine. What is hope?

           According to Jim Wallis, hope is more than a feeling or a mood. Rather, hope is a decision, a choice we make[2]. Hope is not a feeling that pops up and down involuntarily but rather an inherent human capacity and a character trait that one can build upon and nurture intentionally. Sometimes, it can be hard to make hope a choice, particularly in situations which are gloomy and blue. However, it is in hopeless situations that one needs to choose hope — because hope is a choice. 

Paul speaks of the nature of hope as something that takes birth in the unknown and orients toward the future. He says, “If we see what we hope for, that isn’t hope. But if we hope for what we don’t see, we wait for it with patience”. Hope becomes relevant and powerful when one is in a situation that is dark, uncertain, and devastating. Hope is especially necessary for situations such as going through discrimination, exploitation, separation in relationships, serious illness, war, and death. An adverse situation might seem despondent with no answers and remedies, and progress might seem impossible, yet that is exactly the birthplace of hope. 

Hope, being future-oriented, helps one to believe in the existence of light even when passing through utter darkness and offers the strength to walk toward it. Hope desists a person from sinking into the abyss of meaninglessness, despondency, and inertia. Hope believes that there is a future awaiting of goodness, healing, and meaning. 

There is an urgency for cultivating hope today for us as individuals, communities, and nations — a hope that is powerful enough to overcome hopelessness[3].

John Baptist OFM Cap.

Clinical Counselor & Psychospiritual Resource Person

York, PA, USA

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[1] Mark Cole, Give Hope

[2] Jim Wallis, The Way of Hope

[3] Jim Wallis, The Way of Hope