By Genevieve Cowardin, a senior nursing major from Harrisonburg, Virginia
Scripture: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 (NRSV)
Hope is a challenging feeling these days. Being called into deep hope, as is the theme of our week, feels even more overwhelming. How can we stay hopeful when there is so much suffering around us? COVID-19 has brutally attacked us and is still very real, affecting all of our daily lives. The ever present systemic oppression continues to hold people back and down.
Hope has always been a tricky feeling for me. I seek to avoid the feeling of disappointment at all costs. I strive to lower my expectations so that I may not feel that sickly surprise when things don’t go to plan. However, all that being said, I still find myself hoping and dreaming for our futures. As much as I wish I could mask that hope, it never fails to boil up inside me. What is it about human nature that can’t suppress our innate hope?
I am a senior nursing student this year, and for my leadership clinical placement, I am working at the neonatal intensive care unit at Memorial South Bend. We care for sick babies until eventually they are able to go home with their caregivers. Sometimes they spend a couple of days to weeks with us, and sometimes their stay stretches out over months. I am still in the beginning of this clinical rotation, but already I have found such inspiration in the parents and the little ones who are our patients. The love and hope they share is practically tangible in the air around them. This love and hope is deeply intertwined, feeding off of each other.
So maybe that is where our hope comes from. Our hope comes from our love. This love that connects us to one another and our higher power. We can’t help but hope for a better future for our world because of our dreams for our loved ones. Our trust in God’s steadfast love spurs our hope forward. God sees us for who we are and where we are at. God can see what has been rejected as worthless may just be a valuable cornerstone. So, I invite you to reflect on your own hope, the deep hope that is founded in love, because God is present there. God’s steadfast love endures forever, and that is a reason for hope.
Scripture: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 (NRSV)
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!
2Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”
19Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
20This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.
21I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.
22The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
23This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25Save us, we beseech you, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!
26Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord.
27The Lord is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar.
28You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you.
29O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.