Hope Against Hope
New Thinking in a pigsty
by
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“The map is not the territory,” people say, and it’s true. Unless the map keeps up with the territory, it runs the risk of being outdated. Since 1994 the map of South Africa has changed drastically; many people woke up one morning and found themselves on the wrong side of the border. Territories are unpredictable, and usually it is easier adapting the map to the territory instead of the other way around.
The excitement of any journey is not the destination but the road; seeing the trees, the mountains, the natural scenery, and many firsts that you never thought of, or even knew existed. As you travel the journey—not some fabrication of the mind—the map begins to adjust to the reality on the ground.
Life is a journey between birth and death, and we do not have the luxury of choosing when, where and how it happens. We are thrown into it, and it stops when it will. As we go through our journey, we encounter life, not as we imagine it, but as we discover it to be. It will negotiate terms with us, or us with it; and all of that depends on where we stand in relation to God—seeing God from a human perspective, or seeing life from a God perspective.
The wounded healer
M. Scott Peck (1978) began his book, The Road Less Travelled, with a simple assertion: “Life is difficult”. That is as given as a mathematical formula; it’s like saying, “the ocean is full of water”. If you want to live in that environment, you build a ship, learn how to swim, walk on water, or become a shark. You can’t cry the ocean dry. If you are going to live this life, then you have to learn how.
When you are tiptoeing on the edges of adversity, you want the environment to change, only to discover much later that real change begins with you. Mahatma Ghandi was right: “Be the change you want to see.” You may be the most difficult thing to work with, but it’s always the best place to start.
This is the story of a painful snippet in my life, a clip of transition and transformation in drama that continues to play on. It is the story of Kingdom nuggets I learned in limbo. In mid-air a still small voice spoke to me, Jeremiah 36:2“Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you…” Learning was the heart of this whole thing—it couldn’t have come any other way.
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About the Book
This book is a journey in personal adversity. It is a narration of how the author worked through personal pain—armed with nothing but hope, and a desire to say "yes" to life again. No one should die without hope, because two thousand years ago hope in Christ was introduced to humanity. He is Christ in us, the hope of glory.
About the Author
Steve Mochechane started his work as a pastor, some thirty years ago, in different parts of South Africa. Young and inexperienced, he talked with many people on personal and professional levels, with deep and personal problems, but found no true insight.
It wasn't until Steve walked through his own "valley of death" that he discovered books, of which he owned dozens, all accumulating dust on the shelves; he had the intuition to read them. Every book seemed relevant to his situation, and he was turned around by personal stories of adversity. His own story began to unfold, and he captured this on paper.
Experience is the best teacher, though the author dares to pass on to others the wisdom that others passed on to him. Though he may never be able to see some of the people who will read Hope Against Hope, he has a deep conviction that someone out there who reads it will begin to hope again!