Hope Against Hope: Devotion for November 17

If someone asked you to paint hope, what would you paint?

That’s exactly what English artist George Frederic Watts tried to do in his famous painting called Hope. He pictured a woman sitting on top of the world, blindfolded, holding a lyre with most of its strings broken. She’s still trying to play a song—trying to make music with what’s left.

Critics thought he should’ve called it Despair. But Watts said, “Hope need not mean expectancy. It suggests here rather the music which can come from the remaining chord.”

That line has always stayed with me. Because sometimes life feels like that—like trying to play a song on broken strings. Hebrews 6:19 says, “We have this hope as an anchor for our lives, safe and secure.”

But let’s be honest: most days don’t feel very safe or secure. We sit with loved ones in hospital rooms. We wait for test results that could change everything. We scroll through the news and wonder what in the world is happening.

These are anxious times. And yet, hope still hums in the background.

Dr. David Lose, pastor at Mt. Olivet Church in Minneapolis (and my former prof at seminary), puts it this way: “What we see is not all there is, and no matter what may come, God will have the last word—and it will be a good word.”

This reminds me that hope isn’t just wishful thinking or a naive sort of optimism. Optimism assumes things will soon get better. Hope says that even if things don’t, God’s good purpose will still win out in the end. That kind of hope is quiet but stubborn. It refuses to give up, even when the music sounds thin.

So what does hope look like for you right now? Maybe it’s taking a deep breath when anxiety tightens its grip. Maybe it’s praying for someone when you don’t know what else to do. Maybe it’s choosing kindness in a divided world.

Jesuit priest James Martin once said, “God has promised that, in the end, all will be well—and if all is not well, then it isn’t the end.”

That’s the song hope keeps playing, even on broken strings.

— Pr. Laurie Neill

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” -Lamentations 3:21-23

Featured art: George Frederic Watts, Hope, 1886, in Nigel Llewellyn and Christine Riding (eds.), The Art of the Sublime, Tate Research Publication, January 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/george-frederic-watts-hope-r1105604, accessed 15 November 2025.