Hope Hurts

Hope is often painted as light-filled and uplifting—ethereal almost. A gentle light that keeps us going when the way is dark. But hope is also painful. Hope hurts.

It hurts because we hope for what we don’t yet have. Hope is born in the absence of something longed for. It exposes the gap between the life we long for and the life we live in.

I hope that one day speech will come easily for Oscar. I hope that one day he will tell me what he’s thinking, what he’s feeling. I hope to hear him chat with his brothers about movies and music. I hope for a conversation—simple, ordinary everyday.

But that hope—that aching, sacred hope—hurts. Because every day reminds me that words have not yet come. And I don’t know if they ever will.

But hope is not denial. It doesn’t pretend things are fine when they aren’t. Hope stares reality in the face and still holds on. It keeps praying. It keeps believing. Hope is forged in the unseen and resides in the ache of what is not yet.

Christine Caine puts it this way:

“Hope isn’t wishful thinking. It’s faith that refuses to let go.”

Romans 8:24 says, “Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?”

Hope is faith in what has not yet arrived. We don’t hope for what we already have—we hope for what is still to come.

And that where God meets us. In the gap. In the pain. In the quiet place of prayer and tears where we refuse to let go.

Romans 15:13 speaks directly into this tension:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

This hope—though painful—is sacred. It’s not rooted in outcomes but in God. It trusts that even when we can’t see the path, He is walking it with us.

Hope may hurt. But it also holds. It holds us steady when disappointment or disillusionment tries to pull us under. And it holds space for a future we haven’t yet seen. A door open for miracles.

I still have hope for breakthroughs in Oscar’s speech but my hope is not only in the outcome. It’s in the One who holds us both. The God of Hope.

And He is faithful.