I often hear in business circles the somewhat overused modern sayings: “hope is not a plan” and “hope is not a strategy.” Utterance of the word “hope” in a planning discussion or a report to investors or employees will at best result in an unenthusiastic response from the audience, and at worst an admonishment that the speaker does not have a proper operational plan. It makes sense. None of the stakeholders in a business – neither investors nor employees – want to hear from the CEO that the plan for dealing with a set back in business is hope. Everyone wants a well thought out operational plan.
These contexts are certainly separate and apart from the context of our Christian faith, where hope is listed by Paul in I Corinthians 13:13 with “love” and “faith” as one of the three great Christian virtues. But the Christian virtue of hope and use of the word in our day-today language share some important attributes:
Hope always looks to the future. Hope expresses a desired future state that is preferable to the current state.
