Spiritual connections: We hope

I am writing today from the American Cancer Society’s Sandra J. Schulze Hope Lodge here in Rochester, Minnesota, right next to the Mayo Clinic medical complex.

The late Sandra Schulze was the wife of Best Buy founder Richard Schulze, who made it possible for anyone receiving cancer treatments to stay here for free.

My wife, Julane, and I are living here for six weeks while she receives daily Proton Beam Radiation treatments for squamous cell skin cancer on her face. Ten years ago, when she received a liver transplant resulting from Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (the non-alcohol-related type of cirrhosis), we were told a common side effect of immune-suppressing anti-rejection medications would be cancer of the skin in about a decade. Sept. 20 will be the decade anniversary, so here we are, living in hope, literally!

When making hospital visits and doing pastoral care in my ministry, I’ve frequently said the sign over the waiting room door in every health clinic should read “HOPE.” Healing and wholeness happen when hope engenders expectations for wellness.

The word hope appears 164 times in the Bible, most frequently in The Book of Psalms as well as the letters written by the Apostle Paul. 

In his letter to the Romans, chapter 5, verses 3-5, he writes in phrases that elevate hope: “Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope will not fail you.“

This hope is not equated with unfounded optimism, but it is based on a blessed assurance founded in the promise of a future destiny dwelling in God’s love.

And again, in the final verse of the “love chapter” (13:13) in his first of two letters to the people of Corinth, he writes about the things that last forever: “Three things remain forever-faith hope and love …” Divine hope is what it is because it is married to and marinated in divine love.

Some may equate wishing with hoping, like Dusty Springfield in her song, “Wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’, plannin’ and dreamin’ each night …,” but it is so much more than this! 

It is so much more than that “pie in the sky, apple pie hope” that Frank Sinatra sang in “High Hopes!”

Aristotle said, “Hope is a waking dream!” I like the expectation in that thought.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose finite hope.” He gave hope to masses of people.

Albert Einstein said, “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning.” Even a theoretical physicist needs hope!

“Hope is the ability to hear the melody of the future. Faith is the courage to dance it today.” Author unknown

I’m a Rotarian, so here I need to slip in our International Rotary theme for this year – “Sharing Hope with the World!”

After all these quotes, and because of where I sit today, I must conclude with a quote on my wife’s white hand towel that has hung over her dresser mirror for years — “never, never, never Give Up.” Winston Churchill

(Some accounts of Churchill’s speech document that he spoke as many as 11 ‘‘nevers.”)

Julane brought the towel with her for her six weeks of treatments. It hangs by our mirror here at Hope Lodge.

Deep in our souls is a confident hope and blessed assurance!

Editor’s note: EPLN contributor Pastor Rod Anderson serves on the EPLN Board of Directors. Anderson is the former senior pastor of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie. If you want to contribute a faith-based column to EPLN, email editor@eplocalnews.org.