Hope is: taking action today on the basis of what God promises for tomorrow. It’s easier to define than to embrace. Because when we look at the way things are today, our expectations for tomorrow are often pretty low. It’s just being realistic. But hope doesn’t ignore realism. Rather, it struggles to lay against all of our human expectations one great expectation: that the God who promised to bless all people keeps his promise. Abraham set hope against Hope, one expectation against another, his against God’s. That’s why he’s a model of hope for us. He learned to take action with a God who “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” (Romans 4:17)