The prophets remind us that all who dream of justice and peace must be steeped in hope. People of faith are summoned to hope. Biblical hope is not optimism.
Optimism is based on observation of positive possibilities in the external world.
Biblical hope finds no such assurance. It does not promise that our projects will succeed or that we will find within ourselves the capacity to overcome all obstacles. It is not rooted in self-generated positive thinking. Biblical hope is bluntly realistic. Its roots lie in a Scripture that is full of stories about evil, sin, domination, pain, and failure.