“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.  It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.  He has become a high priest forever…”  – Hebrews 6:19&20

I just found these verses and what I’m really geeking out about at this time is how it references hope.  Hope is a weird word, it sounds airy when you say it out loud.  There’s a reason that most people think of Emily Dickinson as having defined it (“Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops… at all”).  It makes sense to the sound of the word, even to the spelling.  It just feels like something that flies. 
But here it is an anchor.  Hope is described as firm and secure.  What tha?  Really?  That’s a new way to think of it I guess… Now time for a legit definition: 
Hope, noun  1. the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.
So hope, which requires believing in things that haven’t happened yet and by all accounts might not happen ever, is always described as something lofty and flighty.  This makes sense because these days people consider the cynics to be most grounded, don’t they?  If you expect the worst about everything people respect you, and if you hope for the best and get excited people think you’re a granola fruitcake. 
But hope is supposed to be an anchor, a source of security and stability.  Hope is not something that floats above our heads, it’s something that we attach to the promises we have in Christ. 
If I were to look at my hope as something, I think I’d prefer it to be the anchor.  I don’t like the idea of my hope being able to fly away from me when I need it most.  For someone with sometimes tumultuous emotions, the idea that hope would hold me securely to Christ sounds too good to pass up, seeing as he’s the only one that doesn’t make fun of me when I get angry over something stupid or cry over a movie.   I guess I think of hope as like my shoes, I can go anywhere in them.  Strap them on and we’re good to go.  Without them I’d feel unstable and lost.