![\"ChooseHopeNN\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/121\/2016\/04\/ChooseHopeNN-1-e1460144986204.jpg\")
<\/a>(The following is the text of the Christopher News Note \u201cChoose Hope\u2026Share Hope\u201d (which was written by a freelancer). If you\u2019d like a pdf or hard copy, see the end of this post.)<\/p>\n\u201cI know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.\u201d \u2014Jeremiah 29:11 Pope Francis has called hope a \u201cmiracle\u201d and a \u201cgift from the Holy Spirit,\u201d a reminder that the kind of hope that can truly sustain us is rooted in faith; it\u2019s not something we create on our own. It requires prayer, trust, and a sense of gratitude even amid life\u2019s trials. \u201cJesus, the hope, renews everything. So hope is a constant miracle\u2026The miracle of making everything new: of what He does in my life, in your life, in our life. He builds and He rebuilds. And that is precisely the reason of our hope,\u201d Pope Francis said in a 2013 homily. <\/p>\n Lisa Wheeler sees that kind of hope \u201cwhen I look at my daughter who we received into our life through foster care adoption. It was one of the most difficult journeys of my life, but I committed myself to trust in the will of God and be faithful in prayer. She is a living reminder [of the line from Proverbs] that \u2018hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.\u2019 In fact, we gave her the middle name \u2018Hope\u2019 when we baptized her as that daily reminder that God fulfills His promises.\u201d <\/p>\n Wheeler\u2019s life in recent years has been one determined effort to remain hopeful after another \u2014 the decision to leave the security of her full-time job to start her own business, Carmel Communications; the illness and death of her mother, who was her best friend; the struggles of her three foster children, whose future is uncertain because, after a year and a half in her care, they may go back to their birth mother. [EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/strong> Since this interview, the three children were sent back to their birth mother.]<\/p>\n \u201cThere are days when I am despondent, but I help myself by looking around at the promises that have been fulfilled. In my heart, I know that even if we lose these children to a broken system, God can heal our hearts and their mom from her struggles. He has shown me His faithfulness and so I believe,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n Wheeler has a special devotion to the Blessed Mother under the title \u201cOur Lady, Undoer of Knots.\u201d Although the devotion has surged in popularity thanks to Pope Francis, Wheeler says she discovered its power long ago. \u201cWhen I find myself losing hope in anything I am doing or waiting on, I typically just say this mantra: \u2018Mary, please untie the knots that are preventing XYZ from happening.\u2019 I receive tremendous peace by just reciting that phrase over and over,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n Acceptance Is Not Defeat<\/strong><\/p>\n Talk to people who are hopeful even during dark times and you\u2019ll find that they often focus on a particular quality that helps them see the glass as half-full. In a recent interview with GQ<\/em> magazine, Late Show<\/em> host Stephen Colbert, who often talks openly about his Catholic faith, said that he used to have a note near his computer that said: \u201cJoy is the most infallible sign of the existence of God.\u201d On the surface that might seem like an obvious thing for a famous comedian to say, but once you dig below the surface and hear Colbert\u2019s story, you recognize the power in his decision to choose joy and, through joy, hope. <\/p>\n Colbert, the youngest of 11 children, lost his father and two brothers in a plane crash when he was only 10 years old. Through his mother\u2019s example and by reading for hours every day, he found a way to work through the trauma. However, it wasn\u2019t until he got up on stage and started doing improvisational comedy that he started to come to a deeper understanding of his own ability to go after things he feared and accept life\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n One of his improv mentors taught him that he had to learn to love not only the times he succeeded, but also the ones when he failed. To love the times of darkness as well as the periods of light. That\u2019s a hard concept for most of us to accept, and yet it is the way of hope, learning to choose joy over bitterness, as Colbert\u2019s mother taught him. <\/p>\n Here\u2019s how Colbert puts it at the end of the GQ<\/em> interview: \u201cIt was a very healthy reciprocal acceptance of suffering. Which does not mean being defeated by suffering. Acceptance is not defeat. Acceptance is just awareness\u2026Boy, did I have a [tragedy] when I was 10. And I learned to love it\u2026That might be why you don\u2019t see me as someone angry and working out my demons onstage. It\u2019s that I love the thing that I most wish had not happened.\u201d <\/p>\n What a complicated and compelling statement, to love something we most wish hadn\u2019t happened: the death of a loved one, the loss of a job or home, the physical ailments that change our lives or make us dependent on others. And yet, so often, they do happen, and we are left to choose despair or hope, constant sadness or life-giving joy.<\/p>\n Choosing to See the Blessings<\/strong><\/p>\n When American-born nun Sister Annie Credidio moved to Ecuador in the 1980s to care for those suffering from Hansen\u2019s Disease (also known as leprosy), she found patients who were neglected and suffering a great deal because of their ailments. During a \u201cChristopher Closeup\u201d interview<\/a>, she recalled that despite all these trials, their faith in God remained deep and they remained people of hope. <\/p>\n Sister Annie said, \u201cTheir spirituality shook me. I thought I knew what faith was about, but I found out that true faith is letting everything go and letting God take over.\u201d <\/p>\n The patients\u2019 hopes were rewarded because Sister Annie co-founded a program called Damien House<\/a>, which provides them with \u201cmedicine, the food that they need, and the dignity and the respect that every human being deserves.\u201d <\/p>\n That dignity and respect can also be found at the International Academy of Hope (iHope), a school in New York City that welcomes children who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, many of whom struggle to even walk or talk. While that might sound depressing, the atmosphere at the facility lives up to its name. It\u2019s hopeful, thanks to the teachers, therapists, and staff members whose enthusiasm and love for the children inspires Occupational therapist Laura Romanelli told The Christophers\u2019 Tony Rossi<\/a>, \u201cThe children make my day brighter. I get to improve their quality of life. It\u2019s generally incremental. Maybe they can\u2019t reach something or walk a step, and then, after a lot of therapy, they CAN do those things. It\u2019s uplifting, and this job is a blessing.\u201d Speech therapist Zimmad Imam added, \u201cIf you give up on the kids, they can sense it. You have to come in here every day and be their hope.\u201d<\/p>\n Progress Always Fosters Hope<\/strong><\/p>\n Stefanie and Manny Gutierrez had every reason to give in to despair after their daughter, Anna, died. Instead, they chose\u2014and continue to choose \u2014 faithfulness and hopefulness, thereby serving as an inspiration to others. Anna, who suffered from a rare neurological disorder called Rett Syndrome, was ill from the time she was six months old until her death at age four. <\/p>\n Even when their own hope was waning, however, Stefanie and Manny felt they had to be positive for Anna and their son, Gabe. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t look at the big picture of needless suffering or whether this was fair or not. We had to just focus on her care. One day at a time, if not one hour at a time. Breaking it into small pieces, you find yourself moving forward, if even just a little, but you are still progressing. And progress always fosters hope,\u201d says Manny. <\/p>\n Hope has taken on a different character in the Gutierrez household in the three years since Anna\u2019s death: \u201cWe still hold close the vision of a world without Rett Syndrome, but our hope is more rooted in seeing Anna again.\u201d<\/p>\n Anna, who loved bright pink, continues to give Stefanie hope, usually when she most needs it. Regarding a recent family vacation, Stefanie recalled, \u201cAs we were walking around a town in another country, I was sharing with Manny how much I was missing Anna, in tears over how much I wanted her near. He said to me, \u2018Let\u2019s turn up this way, I think there\u2019s a church a few blocks up.\u2019 And as we are walking up the cobblestone streets, there is a Catholic church, Saint Anna\u2019s. And what do you know but the church is pink. The entire church was pink! Those moments for me are undeniable [proof] that our family has a saint in heaven watching over us in a very special and real way.\u201d <\/p>\n And those moments allow the Gutierrez family to not only choose hope but to share hope. In their uplifting Facebook posts and conversations, friends and strangers alike can see a deep and abiding faith that allows them to continue finding light where others might find only darkness. <\/p>\n That\u2019s the kind of hope Pope Francis and the saints speak about. That\u2019s the kind of hope that\u2019s ours to choose.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.\u201d To receive a pdf or mailed copy of \u201cChoose Hope\u2026Share Hope\u201d \u2013 or to subscribe to Christopher News Notes via email or snail mail \u2013 send your request to radio@christophers.org<\/a> Stay in touch! Like The Christophers on Facebook:<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/em>
\nHope. That one small word can evoke so much emotion, so much power. Yet in our darkest moments it can feel so elusive. It\u2019s easy to feel hopeful when everything is going well and just as easy to feel hopeless when things take a turn for the worse. But saints, sages and people who have suffered terrible losses remind us that the key to lasting hope is learning to see the proverbial light at the end of even the longest, darkest tunnel.<\/p>\n
\ntheir work. <\/p>\n
\n\u2013 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n