The Hope of Elizabeth Edwards

Over the last few days I have found myself strangely drawn to the life of Elizabeth Edwards. News of her death from breast cancer this past week at first became buried in the madness of the season. But a quote from Edwards' Facebook page caught my attention. Just days before her death, she wrote "The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that. And yes, there are certainly times when we aren't able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It's called being human. But I have found that in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful."


Knowing her story well enough to know the many challenges Elizabeth Edwards faced, I started reading the various articles and watching the video clips on her life. I guess what I was searching for was a definition of that "hope" that she spoke about so often. In fact, just after the announcement that her cancer treatment was no longer effective, and her liver was now fully involved, Edwards wrote again of that sustaining hope. "You all know that I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces -- my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope."

And yet, in all that I read concerning a rather impressive life, that hope that carried Edwards through cancer, the death of her son, a presidential campaign and a brutal public divorce...that hope is never defined as anything more than an almost desperate belief that things are going to get better. And I'm afraid I want more than that in my own life.

The apostle Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:15 to "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." My prayer is that, in an exhaustive review of my life after my passing, the source of the hope that has carried me through trial and crisis will be evident. I don't want people to see a hope that is somehow contingent on my ability to muddle through, but rather, to have them see the "living hope" that Peter wrote of in 1 Peter 1:3.

Elizabeth Edwards led an exemplary life, and I am better for having taken the time to examine that life in more detail than just a Register Guard article on her passing. "In her life, Elizabeth Edwards knew tragedy and pain," President Barack Obama said in a statement. "Many others would have turned inward; many others in the face of such adversity would have given up. But through all that she endured, Elizabeth revealed a kind of fortitude and grace that will long remain a source of inspiration."