Hope and despair

Sarah Bessey begins this chapter with the account of two walking to Emmaus. Their "We had hoped" indicated a lot of disappointment, around Jesus not delivering what they thought he would. Perhaps we have our own 'we had hoped' stories too….which might lead to a sense of hopelessness?
When there seems to be no obvious solution, no positive outcome, then we might experience hopelessness, anxiety, or even despair. However, rather than treating these as unwanted symptoms, we are better to view them as helpful responses - anxiety makes us alert to danger; depression shuts systems down so that we can think about what change we need to make, and gather the will to achieve it. Life and our current circumstances ARE tough - but, if you ARE concerned, then rather than DESPAIR - you can get to work on the problem.
The disciples on the road were certainly changed after their encounter with Jesus....'weren't our hearts burning within'.
I think they had moved from hopelessness to hopefulness. An author who grew up in Albania writes "Hope is a moral duty - we have to act as though there is the chance of things going in a way that is favourable to what we want to achieve".
Beyond this, though, Brian McLaren talks about what to do if we are experiencing despair. "If we can see a likely path to our desired outcome, we have hope; if we can see no possible path to our desired outcome, we have despair. If we are unsure whether there is a possible path or not, we keep hope alive, but it remains vulnerable to defeat if that path is closed.
When our prime motive is LOVE, a DIFFERENT logic comes into play. We find courage and confidence, not in the likelihood of a good outcome, but in our commitment to love. Love may or may not provide a way through to a solution to our predicament, but it will provide a way forward in our predicament, one step into the unknown at a time. To put it differently, even if we lose hope for a good outcome, we need not lose hope of being good people, as we are able: courageous, wise, kind, loving, “in defiance of all that is bad around us.”
Sometimes in the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, / We can hear the whisper in the heart / Giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.
-Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart
Music from Taize "Nothing can ever come between us and the love of God"