Hope @ Work

“Hope is not a strategy” as an old boss of mine used to say. What he meant was that hoping for the best was no substitute for proper planning. But is he always right? Is there a role for “hope” as the Bible defines it?

It seems as though we constantly have to strike a balance when we try to live out our faith in everyday life. God is sovereign, and yet we have free will. God’s grace brings forgiveness, and yet we are accountable for our actions. And I would say that even though hope comes from God, we still need to plan. Hope isn’t a substitute for planning, but it is a gift that is very much missing from a number of work environments. I see at least two ways in which Biblical hope comes into play.

The first, and perhaps more obvious one, is that hope provides perspective. The Bible is full of deferred gratification (which runs so counter to our present culture). Paul puts it like this in Romans: “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (5:3-5) In other words, things may seem really bad right now, but that’s because we’re seeing them narrowly from our point of view, at this point in time. But there’s a bigger perspective (even for someone who doesn’t believe in God’s sovereign grace). There’s the hope that difficulties now will turn out later to have been a blessing in disguise, or at least not as bad as they seem. For a Christian who believes that in “all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28) this is doubly true. When we display this kind of hope (confidence in the future) we have an impact on those around us. We who believe in God’s Kingdom are called to share the hope of redemption and restoration that God is working all around us.

The second aspect of hope is one of attitude. We can approach challenges with an air of resignation, or annoyance, or even despair. Or we can approach with a “can-do” attitude that says we will do what can be done to address a situation, to learn from it, to adapt to it, and to see good grow out of it. This attitude is infectious, and is a gift that can be most easily given by one who knows the “hope of the ages” (Jesus) because of the overriding hope we find in Him.

Hope is one of the three enduring gifts, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:13 (the others being faith and the greatest of all, love). It is gift we can share with all those with whom we work, in our perspective and our attitude.