When I look around, when I listen to the myriad voices speaking most fervently–and most loudly–in our world today, I confess that I do not see hope in abundance. What I see, what I hear, looks and sounds a lot more like decay–the earth depleted, the social fabric torn, a people demoralized. And where, pray tell, is hope? Who is holding it? Who is offering it?

In this moment of history, hope eludes us, doesn’t it?

The apostle Paul probably knew a thing or two about the elusive nature of hope. By the time he writes this letter to the Romans, he has traveled for years as a missionary, been imprisoned for his preaching, and dealt with all kinds of conflict within the early church. Here, he spells out his theology of hope. Listen to the contrasting language in this passage: suffering, waits, frustration, slavery, decay, and groaning compared with coming glory, breathless anticipation, set free, glorious freedom, and first crop of the harvest. Paul contrasts what is seen with what is unseen, what is temporary with what is eternal. What is seen is suffering and frustration, but suffering and frustration serve the hope of what is unseen–freedom, glory, and adoption into God’s family, into “the glorious freedom of God’s children.” Paul emphasizes the importance of hope in gospel theology when he says, “Who hopes for what they already see? But if we hope for what we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.”

The hope of creation is that present sufferings are always the labor pains of being birthed into new life in the Spirit, and that they are incomparable to the glorious freedom that is found in Christ. But we are not only passive participants in this transformation. Elsewhere in Romans, Paul tells the church that we participate in this birth process when we choose not to conform to the patterns of the world, but instead to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. In other words, we have to be willing to be changed, willing to do the hard work of hope, and that involves waiting, and trusting, and praying, and sometimes groaning in pain and despair.

God of hope, you have called us to be in the world, but not of the world, and Lord, honestly, sometimes that is so very hard. We get weary, and discouraged, and it becomes so difficult to wait with patience, to hope for what we cannot and do not see. In these moments, give us your strength. Give us your eyes. Help us to see with hope, that we might strengthen and encourage one another. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.

This devotional was written and read by Greta Smith.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United...