In secular psychology, hope is defined as a motivation to persevere toward a goal or end state, even when you may be skeptical that a positive outcome is likely.
It often involves proactive progress toward a goal, a can-do attitude, and a belief that you have some kind of achievable pathway to a desired outcome.
But as a Christian, I tend to lean towards liking pastor and author John Piper’s definition of hope just a bit better than that above. Piper says…
…“Hope is a heartfelt, joyful conviction that our short-term future is governed by an all-caring God, and our long-term future, beyond death, will be happy beyond imagination in the presence of the all-satisfying glory of God.”
Within the pages of my book, Boundless, I explore this concept of how much more meaningful (and hopeful!) life can be when we believe that our story has a great Author, rather than believing that everything we see and experience is meaningless and without purpose, or that we are simply a bunch of chunks of spiritless flesh and blood floating through space on a giant rock, then eventually dying and passing away into nothingness.
It turns out that, very similar to what we know about the human science of gratitude, and what we know about the power of having a purpose statement in life, the physical and psychological impact of the emotion of hope is also quite impressive.
For example, one study from Harvard’s “Human Flourishing Program” examined the impact of hope on nearly 13,000 people and found those with more hope in their lives had superior physical health, better overall health behaviors, increased social support, and a longer life—along with fewer chronic health problems, less depression and anxiety, and a lower risk of cancer. Long-term studies of employee well-being suggest that hopeful employees experience more well-being, and in one Gallup poll of 1 million students, those who were more hopeful laughed and smiled much more often than the hopeless, and also engaged in healthier behaviors, including fruit and vegetable consumption, regular exercise, safer sex practices, and less smoking. In his book, The Anatomy Of Hope, Dr. Jerome Groopman, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, tells extraordinary stories of hope in coping with conventionally hopeless diseases and suffering. He demonstrates that on a biological level, hope may stimulate the release of internal painkiller molecules.
Hope not only changes us physically, but also psychologically. Hope empowers us to endure greater amounts of suffering. In a time of crisis or survival, even a small glimpse of hope can infuse greater endurance and strength into our circumstances.
