Living with Hope (and Butter on the Counter)

I love making cookies, especially at Christmastime. But I can’t always find the time to bake.

Sometimes in the morning as I look ahead at the day, I think maybe, just maybe, I’ll have time to make cookies today. So, I pull some butter out of the fridge and leave it to soften on the counter.

It’s as if I’m putting a stake in the ground. I’m challenging myself to fit cookie baking into the day—and I’m making it possible for me to succeed if I do. Baking cookies is a thousand times easier if the butter is soft and ready to cream with the sugar.

Putting butter on the counter is not just a reminder. It holds me accountable. My family notices.

“Are you making cookies today?” the question comes.

And I explain that I’m planning to…or hoping to. But I’m not always sure it will happen.

Many days the butter goes right back into the fridge. There is almost always something that requires more time and attention, something that is more pressing, something that simply must be done.

On those days, baking will need to wait. As the day drifts into evening, I admit defeat. I find myself putting the butter back in the fridge. Maybe I can try again tomorrow, I think.

The next morning, I start all over again, believing there might be a sliver of time to make the dough, fill the cookie sheets, slide them into the oven, wait for them to be ready, and then share them or pack them up.

Each time I pull the butter out, I do it believing that I might actually use it for baking, that the day is full of opportunity, that I just might fit it into the limited time we have, and that the butter might lead to cookies. It doesn’t always happen, but eventually one day it does.

Hope is not a strategy, people say. But we can still approach each day with optimism and belief that we might be able to achieve something if we plant the right seeds along the way.

As Christians, we live our lives with hope that is much bigger than butter sitting on the kitchen counter. Living with confidence that God has a plan bigger than ours and trusting that he wants us to live eternally with him helps us navigate some of the more difficult storms we experience while on earth.

As Pope Francis is opening Holy Doors at the Vatican to begin 2025 as a Jubilee Year, we have the opportunity to reflect on hope and consider how it gives light to our path. In the darkest times, hope is all we have. And in those same times, hope is all we need.

May we be a people of hope, trusting in God and his goodness, and working to build God’s kingdom here on earth. And may we find time to bake a few cookies along the way.

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