Pathological Hope vs. Biblical Hope
What do you do when the hope you’re clinging to feels more like a weight than a gift? In this episode of Worthy of Work, Stephanie Rivard explores the delicate balance between hope that is rooted in God’s promises and “pathological hope” — the kind that keeps us stuck, waiting endlessly for someone else to change.
Drawing from her own story of wrestling in a broken marriage, Stephanie shares how misplaced hope led her to confuse endurance with faith, loyalty to fantasy with loyalty to God. She unpacks the difference between biblical hope (anchored in God’s character and truth) and fantasy hope (anchored in someone’s potential or empty promises).
Key insights include:
How Scripture teaches us to hope in God, not in the unreliable behavior of others.
Why waiting passively for someone to change is not faith, but avoidance.
The danger of treating a person’s potential like an idol, instead of trusting in God’s reality.
Why boundaries, stewardship, and wise action are acts of faith, not evidence of weak belief.
How letting go of pathological hope can actually free us to experience real, sustaining hope in God.
Stephanie reflects on recovery principles like “hitting bottom,” showing how misplaced hope can delay necessary change both in ourselves and in those we love. She highlights that God calls us to live in truth, to steward our lives well, and to trust Him with the outcomes — not to soften every blow for others or deny reality in the name of endurance.
For anyone sitting in a painful relationship, wondering if letting go of hope means letting go of God, this episode offers clarity and relief: letting go of false hope isn’t giving up on God — it’s agreeing with Him about reality.
By the end, you’ll be encouraged to re-anchor your hope, not in a fantasy future version of someone else, but in the unchanging character of God. Because true hope doesn’t weigh us down — it frees us to live in wisdom, peace, and trust.
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