“Hope, like every virtue, is a choice that becomes a practice that becomes spiritual muscle memory. It’s a renewable resource for moving through life as it is, not as we wish it to be.” —Krista Tippett

At the end of her interviews, Krista Tippett, host of the On Being podcast, has taken to asking her guests some form of the following question:

What is giving you cause for hope right now?

With dire warnings from U.N. Scientists that we have little more than a decade to get climate change under control, the deadly California wildfires, widening political divides, and toxic tweets meant to fuel fear and incite anger, it seems a question especially relevant to our times. When we train our attention on all of the individual and collective problems around us, it is far too easy to lose hope. Since hope deferred makes the heart sick (Proverbs 13:6), and if, as Ms. Tippett suggests, hope can become a practice that becomes a resource for living with the life we have, I’ve decided hers is a question worth answering on a daily basis. Maybe you would like to join me.

As I have embarked on this new spiritual practice, my eyes are beginning to glimpse causes for hope everywhere, and in unexpected places. 

The Lyft driver who fled Vietnam decades ago, who has a business that exports old plastic fishing nets used on commercial fishing boats back to his home country where they are put to use by fishermen there. When no longer useable, they are melted down and reused to manufacture other goods. Prior to his business, many of those nets were simply discarded into the ocean. 

The new wave of young women elected to political offices around the country. 

Young parents in our family raising their little boys to give words to their feelings, and their little girls to speak up for themselves.

A school educating girls to think critically, lead confidently, and live honorably. 

Girls who code. 

Climbing hills pain free after almost a year of slow but steady rehab. 

And, true confession, the Seattle Seahawks beating the Green Bay Packers. 

What is giving you cause of hope right now?