Hope / Hupo

Quick Notes - This post is just slightly too long for email according to Substack. Also, MaryAnn and I have our next Pop Culture Pastors Hour on Monday 3/16 at 3pm ET. We will be doing the first of two conversations about the book and movie Project Hail Mary. Monday we will be centering on the book and then our next will be the movie. I cannot tell you how excited I am to see the film! Currently it is rocking a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score!!!! Ok - onto Hope/Hupo…

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I am writing this some 35,000+ or so feet above the intersection of NE Wyoming, Western South and North Dakota, and SE Montana. I’m on my way back from a gathering of pastors with whom I’ve gotten together annually every year since 2000. This year happened to be in the Pacific Northwest but each year we gather where one of us serves in minsitry. We all gratuated seminary together and we have made this ongoing commitment to one another. It is not an exaggeration to say that I would not be where I am in life and ministry without this group of men. We drew our group’s name from the Greek word, ὑπομένω (hupomeno) which means to voluntarily choose to endure through trials¹ - and we made our group name Hupomen as a result...or Hupo for short. We have been through a LOT together over the decades - births, deaths, joys, sorrows, changes, transitions, breakdowns, triumphs, comings, goings, and the list could go on.

One of the things that always happens when we gather is that we go back and look at the crumb trails of where we have been. We laugh and share pieces of our lives that are behind each of us and have led us to where we find ourselves both as a group and as brothers. Our Hupo hats also show some of these crumbs of where we have been and what we have shared.

As we each have our hour-long sharing time, we reflect back on our respective years but often those sharings are looking down destination-less roads that seem uncertain - be they are exciting roads or anxious ones. These roads usually have to do with our relationships and families, our ministries, or our health but a few other roads have snuck in there from time to time. But if there’s a theme that arises out of the questions and the prayers that follow it is that we take these journeys one step in front of the other and moment-by-moment knowing that nothing shifts immediately and the destinations are never immediately clear. But we continue to take those steps on our own and with one another.

I was the last of the group to depart Seattle and, courtesy of a lengthy repair delay on our plane, I finished two books I was reading and began another. I began a book of poetry called How to Love the World edited by James Crews. The first poem in the book was called Hope by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. Here’s the poem:

Hope has holes
in its pockets.
It leaves little
crumb trails
so that we,
when anxious,
can follow it.
Hope’s secret:
it doesn’t know
the destination -
it knows only
that all roads
begin with one
foot in front
of the other.²

I noticed something with the word Hope in the poem. It is only one letter different from Hupo. And hope is what has been at the heart of this group for me. They have been hope for me through so many things that have arisen over the last 26 years especially in the seasons when the roads ahead were filled with anxious and fearful energy.

You may have noticed several words along the way in italics. Those are the words that came from the poem. And here are some images from our time together that line up with the poem.

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Hope has holes // in its pockets. // It leaves little // crumb trails

(Side note - we each have these hats and we get a pin from each place we have been - there are pins all around the side of the hat - our little crumb trails)

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so that we // when anxious // can follow it

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Hope’s secret. //. it doesn’t know // the destination

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it knows only // that all roads

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begin with.one // foot in front // of the other

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Here are a few others from the trip:

From the Chihuli Gallery and Garden

I loved loved loved this tree stretching out over the water

Not a bad view in the morning

MoPop, the Space Needle, and a bottle of wine inspired by The Princess Bride

Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Ed

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1. From Biblehub - [this word] depicts the voluntary choice to “remain under” pressure rather than escape it. In Scripture this endurance is never stoic resignation; it is confident perseverance grounded in the character and promises of God. The term gathers ideas of steadfast loyalty, patient waiting, and unwavering courage.

From Ed - There are many uses throughout the New Testament of this word and how it speaks to Jesus’ endurance as well as the endurance followers are called to live as well. You find it in the Gospels as well as in the letters from Paul, James, and Peter.

2. “Hope” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer quoted in Crews, James. How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope (p. 5). Kindle Edition.