Cultivating Hope

This past weekend I started the book, “Just Mercy,” by Bryan Stevenson. If you are not familiar with the story, it’s an autobiographical account of a young attorney who begins his legal career by taking on the cases of forgotten and ill-represented convicted felons, many of whom are on death row.

What was both interesting and surprising to me was a common theme in the conversations Stevenson often had with these prisoners as they discussed their cases. Of course, these men on death row were looking to have judgements reversed, or at the very least, death sentences revoked and turned into “just” life sentences. But what they were really after was something deeper and more subtle.

They were not really asking to be freed. More so, the death row inmates were wanting to have their stories listened to by someone who did not view them as they once were or as the monsters the prosecution made them out to be. They were seeking to be understood by someone with an open mind. They were desiring their side of the story to be told by someone who actually cared about them. They wanted a chance to reconnect with family members. They were searching for a way to have something positive come out of a terrible circumstance. They were looking for a glimmer of light in an otherwise dark existence. What they each were asking for was, in a word, hope.

Not hope of being found innocent or hope of a “normal” life. It wasn’t even hope of not being executed. But hope that in some way, life for them and those they loved might have some threads of optimism woven into an overwhelmingly tragic story. Even if it was a small and seemingly insignificant detail, they wanted a chance something might finally go their way.

With the isolation, uncertainty and fear people are inundated by in these strange times, they too are searching for some of the same things the inmates in the book were seeking. And while it may not be as dramatic and extreme as it is for a death row inmate, many around you are experiencing despair as well. Feeling helpless and powerless to change circumstances, they sink deeper into the mire every day. But you can help.

You do not have to have all the answers. You do not need to provide a pathway out of their circumstances. You do not need to give everyone a solution. You just have to help them believe these things exist. You do not have to fix everything, but rather, help people see that the answers, the paths, the solutions are out there. That they are attainable. You must simply give them hope.

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