TrivesLiv™ Series, Part 3
I built a campfire last weekend with family. It reminded me of the difference between a fire burning kindling and a fire burning hardwood.
Kindling catches fast. A handful of dry twigs lights up in seconds. But if that’s all you feed the fire, you’ll be back repeatedly doing the same thing and wishing for more heat .
Seasoned hardwood is slower. It takes patience to get it going and kindling helps. But once it catches, it burns hot and steady through the evening as you continue to provide it with more hardwood.
This is the picture of the second practice of TrivesLiv: Fuel hope.
Where We’ve Been
In the first post of this series, I shared about my great-grandparents, who left Denmark to build a new life in America, and the Danish phrase that has stayed with me: what was lost outwardly must be won inwardly. TrivesLiv—a thriving life or a thriving organization—grows from that inward work.
The first practice of knowing our story allows us to trace the winding roads of our lives, the hard bends and the bright spots, and notice how experiences, relationships, and values shaped us along the way. It reminds us that every intentional choice adds a page to a greater story.
If our story is still being written, hope is what keeps us writing.
Hope That Flickers and Hope That Holds
We often think of hope as a feeling. It shows up when the news is good and the numbers trend up. We are energized, and we say, “I’m hopeful about this.”
But hope as a feeling is kindling. It rises and falls with circumstances. Emotional hope burns out fast when the grant does not come through, when the team loses a key person, or when the season drags on longer than we anticipated. This is hope that flickers – or even flames out.
There is another kind of hope. It is chosen, practiced, and rooted deep.
That is hope as a discipline. It is the hardwood of deeply held beliefs and values—the things that stay true when circumstances do not cooperate. For me, that is the faithfulness of God. You may name it differently. Either way, the question is worth asking:
What do I believe so deeply that it can carry me forward when the fire dims?
Hope Needs a Horizon
The fire is what we tend. The horizon is why we tend it.
What do I care deeply enough about that I am willing to keep moving toward, even when I cannot yet see the whole way there?
Horizons draw our attention – a landscape, a sunset, a destination. There is something ahead of us that we cannot fully see yet, but can already imagine. A person we want to become. A community we want to help build. A quiet conviction that things do not have to stay the way they are.
The future we can imagine often becomes the future we are willing to work toward. We continue to press on because of the hope that rests on the horizon.
When Hope Dims
Halfway through anything that matters, a quiet voice can show up: “Just let it go.”
Sometimes that voice is fear. Sometimes it is fatigue or discouragement – or the recognition that what we’re reaching for runs against the current culture. And sometimes it is telling us something we need to pay attention to.
Disciplined hope does not mean ignoring those signals. It means being honest about what is difficult while remembering what matters, returning to what anchors us, and asking what the next faithful step might be.
When I am anchored to my beliefs, my values, and the vision I hold for a life lived with intention, I fuel a greater story. I cannot see all of it. But I trust the One who is writing it.
Hope looks back and remembers, holding fast to what is true. And it reaches toward the horizon of what could be.
That is the practice.
Fueling Hope Personally
Hardwood doesn’t stack itself. A few rhythms help:
- Remember. Return to your story. What was transformational and what was the catalyst?
- Name your anchors. Write down the three or four beliefs or values you would stand on if everything else shifted.
- Name your horizon. What future, person, or community keeps returning to your mind because it matters to you?
- Practice gratitude. Gratitude is how we notice the fuel already stacked by the door.
- Stay connected. Who helps you remember what is true when you forget?
Fueling Hope Organizationally
Organizations need a horizon, too. Ask your team: What is really driving our passion for this work?
Few of us come to work simply to produce a service, meet a target, or complete a task. We want our work to make something possible that wasn’t possible before – making a dysfunctional system obsolete, removing barriers thriving, belonging becomes reality.
Teams that practice hope also build it into their rhythms.
- They remember. They acknowledge the organizational story including the hard chapters that shaped their identity, products, and services.
- They connect daily decisions back to mission and values. People need to remember the “why” when the “what” gets heavy.
- They check and adjust to ensure they are pointed to the correct horizon.
- They celebrate progress, however small. Small wins keep the fire going.
Rhythms are how the hardwood fuels the fire.
Back to the Fire
I think about my great-grandparents again. The crossing. The unknown. The long work of making a new place home.
I don’t know the feelings they carried. I suspect there were plenty of days when hope did not feel like much. But I believe it was anchored in faith and fueled by a horizon they could imagine: a thriving life for their family..
That was the hardwood. And it was stacked long before they needed it.
The hope we will need in our next hard season is being gathered now—in what we remember, what we believe, and what we are willing to live toward.
Questions for Reflection
- When has your hope run on kindling?
- What beliefs or values run deep enough to fuel hope in a hard season?
- What becomes possible because your organization does its work? How might your team tell that story more often?
- What is one intentional step you can take this week toward the future you can imagine, even if the horizon seems distant?
Next in the TrivesLiv series: Keep learning.
