The Missing Ingredient

Written by Tom Cooper

• Its absence can negatively affect our mental or physical health

• It's a small ray of light in an otherwise dark cloud

• When we are stressed, our minds work overtime to find it

• When we are lonely, we search for it as a life-giving companion

• When we are sick, it can bring us comfort

• When we face our own mortality, it connects us to the transcendent

• It helps us handle deep losses, bad decisions, lost jobs, broken relationships, and bad luck

• It's one of the basic essentials we cannot live without

What is the missing ingredient?

Hope.

I asked a psychiatrist friend, “What is the one thing you want a client to feel by the end of a session?” Their one word answer: “Hope.”

Years ago I read a quote, which had been etched on a prison wall by a Jewish prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII: “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I cannot feel it. I believe in God even when God is silent."

So how and where do we build hope? For some of us, it starts with faith in a caring, loving, accessible God who both knows and understands our struggles. None of us can avoid life's inevitable hardships, but our faith can help. For many, developing a daily practice of gratitude, deepening our practice of meditative prayer, or seeking the comfort and guidance of friends can all move us toward greater hope.

“More than that ...suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” (Rom. 5:3-5, RSV)

These are not fairytale answers to deep human problems, but rather a comforting, dependable resource for all we encounter in life. Remember:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Blessings,

Tom