Hope is a Discipline
Paul: One more quote amongst many that spoke to me while reading Kyle Kramer's book A Time To Plant. Our ministry in Boston is one that is anchored in Christ's love and hope. Hope is not created by self-will, but it is discovered and renewed daily by experiencing Christ within the many daily tasks he calls us to do.
Kyle writes "For me, hope is an absolutely essential ingredient of survival, and I choose to believe that there is good reason for hope - even if I don't understand the mysterious depths (or heights) from which hope springs. To the best of my limited abilities, I try to live out of that belief.
I have no instruction manual for exactly how to do that, either for myself or for anyone else....I am rather unmoved by abstract or large-scale assurances of hope, be they theological, political, environmental, or economic. If my life on this farm has shown me anything, it is that for hope to have any real consequential impact on my life, it has to be home-grown: discovered and cultivated in the everyday rhythms of a faithful, responsible, authentic, and even joyful household economy.
As Wendell Berry once pointed out to me in a kind but steely tone, hope is a discipline. Like love, hope is born and developed in the gritty reality of daily circumstances; it must be chosen anew, over and over again. And like love, I believe that the discipline of hope is a gift." (pg 165-166)
