Hope vs. Optimism
Biblical hope is different from optimism or positive or wishful thinking. Optimism is generally seeing the circumstances around us and desiring that they will come together for our good, our benefit. There usually isn’t a foundation for the optimism other than having a positive mindset. For Christians our hope is based not on circumstances but on a person, on God the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ. Hope is waiting with expectant anticipation for a better future that God will bring into being because of God’s love for the world, for humanity. While the world is fallen and broken, God has already acted in history to bring about this new life into existence through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. He has begun God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. It isn’t fully here yet, but when we trust in Jesus, we get to experience a taste of it. Therefore our hope isn’t just wishful thinking, it is based solidly on what God has already done in bringing Jesus to our world and raising him from the dead. It is based on personal experience as we are able in to be in relationship with God, and receive his Holy Spirit now as a foretaste of that future. We wait with a living hope, anticipating that God will one day fulfill his promises and bring to completion what he started, the salvation of his people into eternal relationship with himself, and restoration of the whole world to his original perfect design.