Can we “give” hope to people?

I was chatting online with a former student the other night. It made me feel old. She was in my jr high ministry and has now graduated with her master’s degree. Ouch. I was asking her what she wanted to do vocationally and she replied, “give people hope.”

Sounds good, noble, and Christian-like. But can you actually do that?

I asked her an array of questions because I don’t think you can. We throw statements like that out a lot, but can we really do what we’re saying? I know what she was trying to say, but understanding true hope, it’s impossible to “give” it to someone else.

I asked her if it was “hope” or “encouragement” she wanted to give. She replied, “both.” I then asked her how she planned on “giving people hope.”

You see, hope is NOT wishful thinking, nor is it something you can “give.” I can’t force someone to have hope, nor can I cause someone to take it from me. Biblical hope (Greek word is ellpis) is being certain of something to come, looking forward to it’s coming because you are convinced it will. How do you give someone that?

You can’t. Sound hopeless?

Well, it’s not really. The encouraging thing is we can “give” people our time! We can let people know of someone to HOPE in! We might even be able to encourage someone toward hoping in the right things.

With college-age people having high expectations and “hope” (more like wishful thinking) of a successful future we must get this straight. Give them your time. Give them encouragement. But let’s not get it confused. We cannot “give” hope.