My daily routine these days is pretty much ordinary: I wake up early to spend my first waking moments in prayer and then face the day with optimism, expecting things will become better and that the best is yet to come. I have learned lately from Henri Nouwen that hope is not just plain optimism but something deeper. Hope is the trust that God is fulfilling his promises to me at this very moment; that even now he is working on my ordinary circumstances to work out his plan for the universe; that even now he is transforming the the plain and ordinary water of my daily routine into the finest wine. Optimism is the expectation of a bright tomorrow. Hope is the trust that everything that happens today is God’s way of working himself into my life, weave his presence into the fabric of my existence.
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. Mark 1:29-39