For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. — Romans 8:24-25 (New International Version)

I’m thinking about hope this week. I read the Bible in the morning, and the assigned verses this month are from Romans. I looked for a modernized translation to start this essay because the King James (or Authorized) Version, which I read, felt more puzzling than usual. Here it is:

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we in patience wait for it. — Also Romans 8:24-25 (KJV)

Now don’t worry, this is not the time or place to get involved with technical things about translations. I’m just intrigued with the different results of the translations here, not how or why they happened.

“Who hopes for what they already have?” could apply to how long what we have will last, or how it could improve. But the older translation of not even being able to see something, yet hoping for it, seems more daring to me.

I can remember times, including now, when I’ve said “I can’t see how this is going to work,” but followed that soon with “Oooh, I hope it does!”

I’ve been exploring YouTube for historic hockey games recently (just until the new ones get started), and that unseen hope reminds me of watching the tape-delayed broadcast of the U.S.A.-USSR game on Feb. 22, `1980. The announcer pointed out that the winning team would play for the gold Olympic medal. Then he showed videotape of people outside the arena with at least one banner reading GO FOR THE GOLD.

That was the night I discovered unseen hope. I didn’t know how in the world the U.S. team could beat the Soviet team — basically, the Russian Army — and although I hadn’t had a single journalism course at the time, I still realized that maybe I didn’t have all the information, or it was wrong. Maybe the banner was for the other side. I didn’t see how in the world it could really be “ours.” Not until the game was over, anyway!

More recently, I’ve had more serious things to hope for. When will the job market get better? When will the virus be controlled? Are those two things as related as they seem?

I can’t see, but I will try to be patient.