Growing up and living on a farm for most of my life, I’ve learned to have hope. I was raised with hope. A farmer and his wife are the eternal optimists most of the time. They work and prepare the farmland, plant the seed, and trust and have hope rains will come. They hope a damaging storm won’t come along and destroy all they worked hard for. When there is a drought during the hot summer months and the pasture grasses are about used up, and the ponds are drying up, hope still remains that soon the rains will arrive. I know that sometimes farmers can be doubtful, yet hope still remains. Even if trying times come along, the farmer remains hopefully things will somehow work out.

Recently I watched a televised news commentator share his thoughts on never losing hope. He quoted I Corinthians 13:13 “and now these three remain faith, hope and love but the greatest of these is love.” The commentator said it is his belief that even though “love” was considered to be the greatest of the three mentioned, “hope” still was held right up there in importance since it was included in the list of importance. As I read the whole chapter of I Corinthians, in verse 7 it says, “Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.” So hope is mentioned there once again. Having hope is so important it is mentioned in the Bible 130 times. The best hope, I believe, is having hope through the Lord’s unfailing love.

Life is good at robbing us of our hope. We read reports on the negative happenings in the world and our country. There is still a lot of good and positive things going on, such as those locally and in other states who have rallied to help send needed items to help the Kansas farmers and ranchers to the south who recently suffered great losses in a range fire. There are those who gave up their holidays to help in the community and church kitchens making and serving meals to those in need or to those that would otherwise have to have Christmas alone. There are those who gave of themselves to go to Afghanistan to save and transport people and families who had helped the U.S. troops stationed there. Many donations are given to needy causes. There is still hope for this country and its future. There is still hope one day a cure will be found for cancer and the COVID virus. There is still hope for children all over this country who need help. There are still those who come together to help build houses for those in need of a home. The hope list goes on and on.

To hope for something is to look forward to it with desire and reasonable confidence. Hope is a feeling of optimism. We must hang on to it, as one counselor said, “Hope is like a rope.”