Intro

Christmas has increasingly become a secular holiday focusing more on lights and presents than anything else.  It is a fun time for many families, but can also be a difficult time for some.  In the Christian faith, the month before Christmas, called Advent, is a time of reflection and consideration of the coming birth of Jesus, celebrated on December 25th. The four Sundays preceding Christmas are often themed for reflection.  For the next four weeks, we will look at four of those words through a mental health lens.  This week - HOPE

Examples

We often hope for things:

• “I hope I get a car for my birthday.”
• “I hope she likes me.”
• "I hope the Bears win this week.”
• “I hope I get to go to that movie.”

This kind of hope is really more like wishing and, in spite of songs to the contrary, wishes do not always come true!  This kind of wishful hope can leave us disappointed and as we experience disappointment we can become less likely to hope in the future. 

My Thoughts

Hope that builds us up and strengthens our mental health is a hope that expresses confidence that I will be okay no matter what the circumstances turn out to be.  It expresses a belief that I know who I am and that even negative outcomes will not change my value as a person.  There is a lot of darkness in the world today, whether you are thinking about global events like war in the Middle East and Ukraine, national events like the troubles at our own borders, or local and personal events like broken relationships and hurts.  Without hope, the darkness can be overwhelming and isolating.  In the world of mental health, isolation is never a good thing.

Conclusion

Hope can be seen as “faith projected into the future.”  This is a spiritual truth for some, as in looking forward to the birth of Jesus and what it represents for Christians.  Having a spiritually based hope is helpful and consistently associated with more stable mental health.  But all people can practice hope as a mental health strategy by building and living for a personal future story based on experiences that have led them to have “faith” that everything will turn out okay and most importantly, that I am okay.

Application

• What are some experiences in your life that turned out okay in the end, even though it seemed dark at the time? 

• Who are the people in your world that live a life of hope?  How do they encourage you to believe that hope is a good way to see the future?

• What are some hopeful “wishes” in your life right now and how could you reframe them as faith projected into the future hopes?

• Hope is influenced by the people we hang out with and the media we consume. How are the people you spend the most time with, the videos you watch and music you listen to impacting your sense of hope for the future?