Hope and Mental Health

Hope and mental health. They seem quite linked, but what helps them both to dance together well?

I recently had a picture pop into my head. It was a headstone, in a cemetery, and engraved into the old tired stone was the name of the deceased – Hope.

Not a person’s name, but more the concept of hope. That things might get better.

Hope had died, was buried, was gone, and had left the building.

It made me jolt.

‘What was that about?’ I thought.

I then went to some of the conversations I have had. To the emails and messages I receive, and the underlying death of hope.

I wanted to give them some sort of resuscitation to their deflated lungs.

Hope and Mental Health

What is Hope?

Here is an interesting definition.

Hope isn’t a denial of what is, but a belief that the current situation is not all that can be. You can recognize something’s wrong, but also that it’s not the end of the story. Thema Bryant

Mental health, our mental wellbeing, I believe, goes up and down. Sometimes we are ‘living the dream’ and sometimes the dream is more of a nightmare.

Mental health can be a roller coaster. Up, down, thrown from side to side, and we wonder when will all this settle down.

I suppose the healthiest of us all have a kind of balance to our daily tightrope walk. There is a resilience, there are habits, there are social connections that help us find stability. But especially we keep walking the tightrope. Taking steps every day.

Hope is made up of little steps every day.

Faith Hope Love

Paul, the writer of a letter to a church in the Greek city of Corinth, wrote these words:

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthian 13:13

When the early readers read the word ‘hope’ they would have seen the Greek word ‘elpis’.

Elpis – a confident expectation or trust in God’s promises.
It is not merely wishful thinking, but a firm assurance based on the character and faithfulness of God.
This hope is often linked with faith and love, forming a triad of Christian virtues. Biblehub

Hope is a key theme that I want to impart through everything here on Turning the Page. It’s in the compelling vision.

Empowering Mental Health through Faith, Hope, and Love.

But what does that mean for someone whose hope has died?

A cup of hope

It’s a cup.

A small cup.

I have several cups in my kitchen, but my favorite cups are the smallest. I sip a shot of coffee in the morning as wait in hope for the sunrise to come up.

Often as I talk with someone, I want to offer them a little cup of hope.

Not a big cup, that would be too much and it might lead them to an over inflated, over optimistic enthusiasm.

A hope that can be so easily deflated to being like a dead balloon and who needs more dead balloons?

But a little cup can offer a few millilitres of hope.

I believe in the power of ‘millimetre ministry’. Many little steps seeing the brain change and hope to gain momentum.

I want people to borrow a little cup of hope from me.

‘You’ve run out of hope?
Borrow a small cup from me.
Just bring it back when you have some of your own.
Tell me the story and I will give the cup to someone else who needs a cup for their journey.’

Mental health is empowered when a hope is realised and not deferred.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12

Resuscitation or Resurrection?

I started out this post with the picture of a cemetery headstone with the words ‘Hope’ engraved on it.

For some, whose hope has died, perhaps that might have been the best thing.

Because if you’re hoping for something what was never God’s best intention for you, then perhaps a better hope needs to come about.

I don’t want to resuscitate that which needed to die.

I want to see a resurrection of something new, wildly good, and different.

That excites me.

I think the Bible story of Naomi, where her hope was dead and buried but was then resurrected to something much better.

“The Lord’s hand has turned against me!” Ruth 1:13

Then, a little while later in the story, we have a baby.

The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer.

May he become famous throughout Israel!

He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.

For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”

Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him.

The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!”

And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Ruth 4:14-17

And Jesus came out of this lineage.

Some hopes and dreams have to die to enable other hopes and dreams to be born.

Hope

I sit and look
Out at the night
I await the dawn
Some brand new light

Gas explosions
Distant sun
God’s hands clap
In cosmic fun

Light, it comes
To my distant shore
Pinks and oranges
Subtle changes I adore

I sit and wait
Hold out my little hope cup
Lord, make this a hope filled day
Tastes of you from which to sup

It’s a small cup
Big enough to easily fill
A small millimetre change
Manna portion not to over spill

A small cup Lord
That’s what I am
Fill me up
From your hand

I wait and hope
I long for rivers wild
But a small cup is all I am
Enough for today will do just fine

I thank you Lord
For this provision day
Sun beams given
Started out light years away

I am waiting
Holding tiny cup
Help me Lord
With my sup

At end of day
When tired I will be
I will review my cup
And thank you for what has been

I will hope
I will look
For those little gifts
Scattered along the way

Questions?
Comments?
Email me 🙂📨
barry@turningthepage.co.nz

Give a little gift to keep the pages turning

Quotes to consider

Hope is sometimes equated with burying your head in the sand and ignoring reality or sitting idly by waiting for things to get better. In reality, hope is a more nuanced, cognitive process that involves well-known psychological concepts, such as goal-setting, agency, and cognitive restructuring. Hope as the antidote
Wishing is passive toward a goal, and hope is about taking action toward it. Hope as the antidote
If I have the perspective that something better is possible in the future, then I can better endure my struggles today Hope as the antidote
As you realize it feels good to do something, you’re more likely to do it again. Engagement increases, and so does your sense of hope about the future. Shara Sand Hope as the antidote
What is hope? Hope is not optimism, optimism is kind of a cheap emotion, it’s – “Everything’s going to be okay.” Hope is a really profound spiritual event on some level that gets you through uncertainty to something you yearn for. So, hope is a process. If. If you can’t hope, you can’t move through uncertainty. It is the tool to get you through uncertainty to something you want. But when you hope for something, you make that thing more important than before you hoped for it. It becomes the target, the thing you’re heading towards. Dr. Ross Ellenhorn
God meets us where we are, not where we pretend to be or wish we were. My job is to pay attention to where I am. When I enter my reality (my red-dot truth), He brings His reality, His truth, into mine. Truth is a two-way street. When I avoid my truth, I nod politely, and I might even smile or say amen when I hear His. But not much happens. God’s truth does not set free a pretending or hiding heart. Larry Crabb
Although incredibly seductive, anything that promises the light without acknowledging the shadow isn’t telling the whole story. Ingrid Mathieu
The greatest mistake that many of us make is to believe that Christianity promises a better life here and gives us techniques for reaching
it. But I want to suggest to you that Christianity is all about a better hope. Larry Crabb Don’t Bless the Mess: We Need Something More. SoulCare Foundations II: Understanding People & Problems. Lesson 10
Christianity is not centrally about experiencing a better life. Christianity is centrally about experiencing a better hope.

Larry Crabb