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I’m not feeling particularly optimistic today. I see reports that homelessness topped 700,000 people in the one-night count last year, the largest number of people on record, including a tremendous spike in families with children. I see a video of a woman in labor being cited for public camping by a police officer who doesn’t believe what she is going through. Right here in my hometown of Lancaster, PA our city is threatening sweeps of people’s belongings when they have nowhere else to go. 

I used to feel more optimistic. When I got my start in the field of homeless services and when I began serving on the Bridge of Hope board, homelessness had been decreasing nationally for years. I was working in Veteran homelessness, and those numbers were going down even faster. We were striving for a world in which no Veteran would ever experience homelessness for more than a few days while we worked to reconnect them to housing. But in recent years, our nation has experienced a growing housing and homelessness crisis that has touched every single community, exacerbated by a global pandemic that kept us all apart for the better part of a few years. Optimism has taken a beating. Pessimism creeps in. 

But optimism is not the same thing as hope, and while I am not necessarily optimistic today, I am hopeful. Optimism can require us to look past the hard and difficult and challenging things in exchange for a belief that everything will be OK. Hope doesn’t need us to do that. Hope means we can see all that stands in our way, know that the journey through it is long and that we may not ever see the end of it ourselves, but take that next step anyway. 

I think of the mini Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11, where the author writes that “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” before chronicling the faith of people like Abel – who was murdered by his brother – or Noah – who endured the destruction of the world – or Rahab – who was shunned by her community for being a prostitute but welcomed a stranger in her obedience to God. Verse 13 says that “they did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.” Life was not easy for these heroes of the faith, yet we remember them all today and are told in Verse 16, “they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” 

Hope means I can think of that story of the woman in labor and remember how it is not unlike the way Jesus came into the world and know that this moment, as painful as it is, is not the end of the story for this woman or her child. Hope means showing up on the day of the sweep to be a witness and working to pressure public officials to change course, knowing there is little we can do, but trusting that a path will open – and it did when the two men living there moved into housing last week. It means Bridge of Hope case managers taking on a family with not a lot of money or job prospects, or much idea of what is next and trusting that their neighbors will surround them with the support that they need. 

I kept coming back to a song that has brought me a sort of melancholic comfort over the years. The lyrics come from writing on a basement wall in Cologne, Germany where Jews hid from Nazi police forces. They say “I believe in the sun even when it’s not shining. I believe in love even when I don’t feel it. I believe in God even when God is silent.” 

Laudate Mennonite Ensemble- “I Believe” 

That refrain, “even when, even when” always sticks with me…it’s repetition and longing. There will be lots of reasons not to be optimistic and they can be viewed as reasons not to hope, but so many before us have acted hopefully even when there were so many reasons not to have hope. And I should add that, while I am about as pessimistic about the state of homelessness as I’ve ever been, I have always been not only hopeful but optimistic as well about Bridge of Hope and as I wrap up my time with this board, I remain hopeful and optimistic about this organization and the people who will shepherd the mission forward. I remain hopeful that this kind of work done in this spirit will change the world, even when I am pessimistic, even when the rent keeps going up, even when we feel like we cannot see a clear path forward, I have always seen us continue to take the next step in hope and in faith. 

Guest Article by Ben Cattell Noll
Bridge of Hope National Board Member 2016-2025
On the occasion of his final board meeting 

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Hope vs. Optimism