by Eddie Pipkin

Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash

Perhaps you are familiar with the work of Arthur Brooks, author, academic, and researcher of the science of happiness.  He has lots of practical advice about how to build a better life, and although his work with Oprah occasionally veers into woo-woo territory for me, his take on our agency in decision making is something I find useful.  His contrast of hope versus optimism sets the stage for how we can supercharge our goals through action.  In ministry, deeply engaged with the theology of hope, we can find ourselves strangely passive, waiting for a good outcome.  Brooks argues that if we believe in that outcome, we should get in there and fight for it.

The website for Equinox Counseling gets to the heart of the differentiation between hope and optimism in these paragraphs:

Why are we parsing words? Because while both hope and optimism can benefit our lives, research has shown that hope is a more potent force and better for our health and well-being. Hopeful individuals are also more likely to find success at work and have higher academic achievement. As Arthur C. Brooks wrote in the Atlantic, optimists tend to imagine a better future but can then be disappointed when it doesn’t pan out, while hope “involves personal agency” and allows for one to envision that progress “without distorting reality.”

Hope makes people act.

Personal agency refers to what we can control.  That’s a powerful force.  Where that powerful force of personal action intersects with supernatural intervention is interesting territory for people of faith, since we are intimately familiar with the foundational words of Hebrews 11:

Now faith is the realization of things hoped for, the confidence of things not seen.   [Hebrews 11-1, NKJV]

I tweaked that verse a little in reproducing it here, substituting the optional translation choices (as indicated by the italics – click the reference above for the original).

We’re used to hearing “the substance of things hoped for,” like it’s a done deal, God’s will and, abracadabra, Bob’s your uncle.  But “the realization of things hoped for” carries more of a teamwork vibe, the vision faithfully pursued through God’s empowerment of the work we have been gifted to accomplish.

Instead of sitting by passively while God ordains the outcome, we get busy with the holy work at hand.

Hope means acting on our beliefs, activating our possibilities.

Likewise, “the evidence of things not seen” has an after-the-fact air to it, but “the confidence of things not seen” is forward looking, dynamic in tense.

We’ll pray hard and work hard.  And we’ll work hard with purpose and shrewdness.

Brooks writes about optimism in terms of mathematical probabilities.  An optimistic person is someone who knows that the odds are in their favor: the ‘evidence’ indicates that resources and personnel are lined up in such a way that success looks likely.

Hope, on the other hand, means that we act in ways that indicate we are planning to succeed, even though the ‘evidence’ at first glance seems to be against us.  The odds are not in our favor, so we confidently do everything we can to increase those odds.  This is, of course, the biblical model that we see replicated time and time again.  A scriptural hero is given an unlikely vision to pursue and – against the odds – works confidently, robustly towards that outcome.

What does it mean to be operating in hope?  Is it possible to convert hope to optimism?  There are systemic approaches we can take in good faith to supercharge our hopeful vision:

  • Empowering people to be our practical advocates.  When we surround ourselves with good people we multiply our possibilities for success.  When we build strong teams with talented individuals with different outlooks and perspectives, we strengthen the likelihood of our objectives.  When we consult others with experience and wisdom on a topic, we gain new insights, solve problems, and often build new partnerships.
  • Stacking the odds.  In taking on any new thing, we learn there are supporting frameworks that need stabilization or improvement.  Use those opportunities to fortify systems and procedures.  Often, we try to avoid these fixes, detouring around them or duct-taping a temporary solution to get a project done, but we might use these exposures of flawed support systems as a useful warning to deal with underlying issues that, once strengthened, will make everything smoother.  Regular training and new skill development are also critical for our teams and leadership.
  • Framing the conversation.  The language we use when undertaking any project can be pivotal in creating a narrative of hope around that project.  False optimism can be dangerous, and false optimism can be an issue in church settings where heavenly visions become detached from a realistic strategic plan.  Hope acknowledges the challenges, but does so in a way that lays a path for successfully overcoming those challenges.
  • Reducing the potential negative impacts.  If we are pursuing a strategy of confident hope, one of the key things we can do is clear our path of obvious obstacles.  Looking down the road as we undertake a project, there are always some potential complications we can reasonably predict.  Let’s do what we can to take those out of play.  An ounce of prevention truly is worth a pound of cure.
  • Controlling the alternative options (establishing an escape plan).  When I am getting ready for one of my cross-country drives, I make sure and do all the maintenance for the car, but I also do a little speculative emergency planning.  If the car should leave me stranded, here are the options for what I would do.  It doesn’t mean I don’t believe in the soundness of the vehicle; it’s just common sense and gives me peace of mind.  Similarly, when we embark on a project, it is not unfaithful or displaying a lack of hope to have backup plans in place.  One doesn’t need to be obsessed with backup plans, but in addition to easing our anxiety, their contemplation can sometimes lead to useful insights about the project itself.

All these investments in our stated goal can add oomph to our hope.  No doubt you have some of your own that you can share in the comments section.  We’re all familiar with the gloom of despair that sometimes surrounds an undertaking from the get-go.  You know those efforts that seem doomed from the start.  The planning is lackluster, the language surrounding them is negative in character, the enthusiasm is lacking, and even the smallest challenge is magnified to the status of immovable object.  Hope is a different animal.  It doesn’t loathe the process.  It loves the process.  It loves not just the end result but the vitalizing work along the way.

What do you think about Brooks’ contrast of hope and optimism?  Do you find it a useful distinction?  What are the hallmarks of hope for you and your teams?  Good luck and Godspeed on your latest projects and adventures.