Viktor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, wrote of his years imprisoned in the horrors of Auschwitz and Dachau, describing cold, fear, pain, vermin, starvation, and exhaustion, but said he survived because he never lost hope. He also wrote of what would happen when a prisoner did lose hope: he would refuse to get out of bed, refuse to dress or wash, turning a deaf ear to his friends’ pleading and his captors’ threatening. He would simply lie in his bed until he died, having surrendered all hope.
Hope is absolutely crucial to Christians. When it weakens, the result is always the same: spiritual inertia. It’s imperative, therefore, to remember that we’re on a journey— still a long way from home— and that hope is the fuel that keeps us going. We must guard and nurture it. But what exactly is hope? Oftentimes, we’re saddled with clumsy definitions and so don’t quite understand the concept of hope. Is it to believe that anything can happen? Is it to expect that things will get better? Is it to wish for something against all odds? Is it to maintain a sunny outlook despite what happens? No, it isn’t any of those things.
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