Hope is a powerful force. When people possess hope they are more resilient, creative, positive and diligent. With hope, we can keep going through tough times. Without it, we tend to fall into despair and a sense of powerlessness. Because it’s so powerful, people will grasp for hope wherever they can find it. But if that hope turns out to have no foundation, the end result can be devastating. As a mentor, I want to strengthen hope in those I serve. But I know I need to be careful not to encourage false hope.
At the time of writing, hope is a popular theme of discussion. In 2024, Tearfund commissioned NCLS to conduct research into attitudes toward global challenges, which led to the publication of ‘The Global Hope Report’. Both Tearfund and NCLS are currently offering various opportunities to consider the results of that research, which indicates people of faith are generally more hopeful than those who are ‘neither religious not spiritual’, but the difference is not great. People tend to be more hopeful about matters in which they feel they can make a difference, but hope drops away concerning matters that are too big to control.
Earlier this year Gallup published their latest Global Leadership Report. This year the focus was ‘What Followers Want’ yielding the fascinating result that 56% of followers list hope among the top 3 qualities they need from a leader. (Next in line were Trust 33%, Compassion 7% and Stability 4%.) Several people I mentor are organisational leaders, and I know they feel the pressure to inspire hope in others. It’s agonising when their own sense of hope takes a battering yet they still need to lead.
The Commons Cooperative is a Christian organisation devoted to inspiring and launching ‘communities of hope’ around the world, conscious that in such challenging times as these, hope is hard to find, even for Christians. Cam Roxburgh, writing one of their recent blogs pointed out that we commonly fall into a couple of traps when it comes to hope.
The first trap is to engage in wishful thinking, a naïve optimism that everything will turn out fine. This sort of thinking is encouraged even in schoolchildren, telling them they can be anything they want to be and achieve their dreams with confidence and a positive attitude.
The second trap, to which Christians are especially susceptible, is to imagine that God has promised us things that he has not. There are many wonderful promises in the Bible but it’s false to think we can pick one we like as a basis for our hope. Some were made to specific people; the rest of us have no right to appropriate those promises. Some are conditional, describing outcomes of faithful obedience; if you don’t fulfil the condition, you can’t expect the outcome.
As I seek to strengthen hope in those I mentor, I try to draw attention away from hoping for certain outcomes toward placing hope in God himself. There are definitely particular, wonderful outcomes that God has promised us, but these tend to be anchored in the age to come. For now, what we are assured of is God’s presence with us in the midst of trouble.
Being hopeful in God’s grace in whatever form he chooses to give it is a vulnerable stance to take, especially when you’re leading people who are looking for the comfort of certainty. That’s why I’m confident my encouragement and affirmation as a mentor has real value in these troubling days.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Rom 15:13.
– Rick Lewis
ACMN Committee Member & Professional Mentor