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“The Lord has promised Good to me. His Word, my Hope secures.”
from “Amazing Grace” by John Newton, a hymn born of his conversion from a slave trader to an abolitionist/preacher, from blind to seeing, from hopeless to hopeful.
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Welcome back as we enter the final week of this series!
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Today’s contributors inspire us to reflect on the seeds of transformation God asks us each to plant–among the voices of “Why bother?” “Give up!” “That’s illogical,” “But that’s not the way it is,” “That’s strange,” “That’s impractical”– in our lives.
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May we remember today these seeds we planted in faith, and find the hope that resists digging them up when things don’t go as cleanly, as quickly, as planned. May we remember that breakthroughs are directly attached to our meantime, when we allow the seed to sprout and grow toward the surface, into some unexpected fruit, better than we imagined. Breakthroughs come when we realize we don’t need to know how to grow a plant… but just listen to the (wink) ludicrous loving whispers of the One who does. One now at a time.
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And what if hope, then, is the ever-increasing trust in that process? Won’t we all keep planting those seeds?
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“Where do you find hope?”
“For me, hope always seems to come from other people. In tough situations, I have seen so much resilience when people are faced with unbearable hardships and heartaches. Their determination to continue on, through those tough times gives me hope.
If people are willing and able to push through this, then together, we can push through anything.
On a more personal note, I think back to certain times in my life when I had been in situations where I had given up on myself- Where my weaknesses and failures that continuously swirled around my head tainted me- telling me that those failings were all I was made of. In those times, specific people in my life still saw me and loved me where I was at. Yes, they saw my failures and weaknesses, but they also saw all the good qualities about me as well- and that always provided hope to me through my own turmoil.”
Amanda Fahrendorf works at the Riverwest Food Pantry in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is passionate about meeting people right where they are, and fostering community in a world that so desperately needs it. She’s an artist, a hiker, a remarkable listener, a superb whistler, a very scary lava monster during Kindergarten recess, and a most genuine friend. In some of my most difficult hours as a teacher last year, God sent in Amanda with her encouragement, energy, and grace.
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“I first find Hope in my faith. My faith in Jesus is a major priority in my life and having a personal relationship with Jesus is especially important to me. I pray constantly, and when I pray, I must have faith in what I am praying for. By spending quality time with Jesus through prayer, I find hope in that Jesus hears my prayers, and that provides me comfort.
I also found hope from my mother. She provided a great example for me and gave me hope my whole life through her many sacrifices. Because of her vision for my life she helped prepared me for success, so I am hopeful that I can handle any situation that comes my way because of my mom’s prayers, love, and guidance.
My daughter provides me hope as well. She is one of my biggest blessings in my life, and I thank God for her. I am passing on the same knowledge to my daughter that my mom passed on to me, so my daughter will be ready and prepared for the pressures of this world. She provides me extra motivation to succeed, because I want to be able to provide a great life for her. I am hopeful that I will provide a good example for her on what a good father is, on how a man should treat a woman/lady, on what a good work ethic is, among other valuable lessons–so that when she gets older and has to make decisions, she will have a good blueprint to look back on. If I do a good job as her dad, I am hopeful she will make the right decisions.
I also find hope from my own athletic and coaching experiences. I played sports my whole life, so I understand teamwork and working hard towards a common goal. Coaching is about building relationships and teaching life lessons through sports. Of course I taught basketball skills and concepts, and that is why our players and teams were successful over the years, but one of the main things I was trying to do was teach life lessons through basketball… and even if some of our players did not fully understand some of those lessons while in high school, maybe one day when they get older, they will look back and say, ‘That is what coach was trying to teach us,’ and maybe some of those lessons we were trying to teach will be able to help them the rest of their lives as adults, and that gives me hope. I know the importance of sports, coaching and leadership, and the responsibility of adding value into other people’s lives.”
(Coach) Ron Moncrief is the Athletic Director at Saint Joseph High School in Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania. He coached women’s basketball at Vincentian Academy from 2005 to 2020, where his teams won back-to-back state championships in 2014 and 2015. Ron was named 2013 and 2014 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette North Basketball Coach of the Year, and the 2014 Pennsylvania Sports Writers (A) Coach of the Year. He is the author of Coaching from the Heart: The Greatest Untold Stories. I can attest: his authentic faith and love for others inspires his players to rise to more than they would otherwise dare imagine.
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“Every year, after our final shows, I ask the cast to choose quotes from the show which reflect a life philosophy or lesson. One by one, 2nd or 3rd or 5th graders stand up and reveal deep insights into human behavior, positive philosophies, and messages of love and hope they have gleaned from the show. Their choices and explanations reveal depth, insight, love and positivity far beyond their years. The hearts of our children give me hope.”
Karen Cordaro (aka “Mrs. C”) is an educator and the founder of ACT ONE Theatre School, which offers musical theatre programs for youth from Kindergarten through high school. She also wrote the script and co-wrote the lyrics for Sesjun (an internationally broadcast jazz program with Holland’s Metropolitan Orchestra), directed the Route 66 performance with the cast of The Bold and the Beautiful in Rotterdam, and has written for Paramount, among many other accomplishments in the field. I experienced firsthand how Mrs. C encourages her young students to take creative risks, celebrates their differences, empowers growth, nurtures an empathetic imagination, and lives out her motto “There are many ways to teach love.”
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“Hope springs forth from many sources for me. In the past, it was working with alumni and their families in doing service work around the community. Being able to lead such a genuine and kind group of people meant a lot and really shaped my college experience. Now, with the hustle and bustle of my 9-5, hope comes in different ways: texts and messages from old friends that feel like no time has passed at all, music that energizes me or helps me reflect, and spreading joy in the form of cheesy jokes every week. But most of all, hope comes from continuing to grow personally and seeing not only how my life is changing for the better, but how I am able to be a light for others.”
Justin Knobloch is an analyst at Digitas in Chicago, with side hustles including but not limited to: near-professional Latin dancing, curating dozens of playlists to suit your every mood and season under the pseudonym “Headphone Guy,” playing the guitar, drinking too much milk in Italian restaurants, and folding shapeshifting origami roses. Two times a year, he can be found fully costumed as Buddy the Elf. Once weekly, he can be found emailing his coworkers and friends a new collection of original puns. Daily, he can be found bopping to a good beat, confidently strolling along, and alchemizing authentic joy in all he encounters.
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“I find so much hope in children and teenagers (yes, teenagers). Kids and teens are seriously the best. My nieces, nephews, students, and little brothers and sisters at the Finca being me hope and call me to the work of giving all I’ve got to building up my little corner of God’s kingdom. Here are some favorite memories over the past few months: getting a FaceTime call from a student so that I could be a part of her grandmas 60th birthday party, seeing a very fantastic kiddo laughing hysterically over Bob books as she learned to read virtually, riding the waves on a ridiculous pineapple inflatable with my nieces and nephews, and knowing that my first class of students have beat numerous odds and graduated high school. I’m really wildly blessed to know children and teens who have shown me the heart of God- a heart that loves lavishly, unconditionally , and fills the world with laughter! If you need hope, be there for a kid in your life. Works every time.”
Anna Smith is a 3-5th grade Montessori teacher at Durant Tuuri Mott Elementary–a public school in Flint, Michigan that offers multiple specialized programs to suit its students’ unique needs. Upon graduating from Franciscan University, she taught middle school English and Religion De La Salle Elementary School, a Catholic school in Memphis (now Compass Binghampton Charter School) that serves primarily immigrant and refugee students. “Over 13 languages spoken in a student body of under 200!” she told me. From 2018 to 2019, she served as the Sub-Director and Special Education Director of Centro de Educación Básica Católico San Pedro at the Finca del Niño in Trujillo, Honduras. Anna is the loving and beloved “cool aunt” to her nieces and nephews, a strong woman of faith who lets God make a way in places others might write off, an angelic vocalist who can harmonize anything, and a top meatball chef.
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“I take hope to the ability to imagine a better world – more loving, more just – than the one we currently reside in.
Hope is necessary in my work as an addiction recovery coach. It is necessary for the recoverees because recovery is impossible without the ability to imagine, even if fleetingly and incompletely, a life of sobriety. One of the things strong drugs do when taken frequently is rewire the neurons in the brain into a closed circuit of drug-seeking thought. Not much else gets in. So when someone in active addiction simply imagines sobriety, that alone is a victory.
Hope – as distinct from optimism – is also necessary for the recovery coach. Optimism expects things to turn out well; hope is just thankful when they do.
So what gives me hope? The small victories of my recoverees. One got high, spent all the money he was saving to move out his parents’ house, wrecked his car, and lost his job. A day or two later, he called to meet with me. The fact of this call meant that he had not given up on himself. That gave me hope. For six months, I have been trying to convince another recoveree to go to inpatient rehab because outpatient has not worked (he keeps getting high when he has too much free time on his hands). Today he is taking a Greyhound bus to a six-month treatment center. Even though he bailed after one day because he was anxious the last time he tried inpatient treatment, his taking the bus today gives me hope.
In addictions work, there is no victory too small to celebrate, and when we celebrate it is for a hope fulfilled, even a hope seemingly as insignificant as a person getting on a bus.”
Todd Whitmore is an Associate Professor of Theology and Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Imitating Christ in Magwi: An Anthropological Theology, which he wrote upon traveling to northern Uganda and South Sudan from 2005-2013. In 2018, he wrote a successful grant to train addiction recovery coaches to work in the local hospital emergency room, to support those recovering from overdoses to maintain ongoing sobriety. He is currently a Certified Addiction Peer Recovery Coach for persons with methamphetamine and opioid addictions in northern Indiana. His work–and his ability to articulate its inspiration in lectures and writings–is a vivid example of the modern-day, living hope of Christ in our world.
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Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed–in writing, reading, talking, sharing, living, or all of the above–to this HOPE: a gathering place series. You have inspired me and an exponential amount of others more than you will ever know. Your seeds are producing fruit in ways you could never imagine.
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The image at the top of this post is the one I want to leave you with after these four weeks. The vision I had from the beginning: flickering candles coming together from all over, a brief moment in time, creating a bonfire, and then going forth each more blazing than before… to pass it on.
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Look around, look within: don’t you see them burning?
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I declare it: God is working in your life, in my life, in our world. We have glimpsed His promises. We will know the next good step in our participation, we will plant the seeds and trust there’s a reason. We will be renewed.
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And we will discover HOPE, again and again, against all odds.
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Go forth, brave friends. ♡