Hope and fear?

Slow Leadership makes a very compelling case for the idea that hope tends to bring fear in its wake. (See here for an annotated version, with my highlighting, of this post.)

The argument runs:

Hope always engenders fear – hope at a wished-for outcome, fear that it won’t come about.

We cannot break that bond.

We tend to react by over-planning, as if that in itself can make our hopes come true.

Accept the link. Accept the inevitable. Don’t over-plan. Exercise curiosity. Give up on a specific hope when it becomes unrealistic.

Hmm. This seems pretty secure as a set of ideas. Except that, from a Christian perspective, the resurrection is there to break the bond between hope and fear.

Or, more precisely, to connect hope and a certain kind of fear (more like awe, perhaps) up in God’s own self:

“… the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love (Psalm 147:11).”

Of course, in everyday life, it’s not as easy as that. We still hope. We still fear. It’s natural.

Perhaps, then, the Way is about letting go of the connection between hope and fear – about learning how to hope in God and others without allowing fear to dominate.