Active Hope: Starting with Gratitude

We are often so busy getting through the day that we forget to look at the life happening around us.

We wake up, check our phones, go to work or school, answer messages, meet our responsibilities and plan for tomorrow. There is always another task waiting. Even in a quiet moment, our minds are usually somewhere else.

Meanwhile, the world keeps moving. People are facing struggles we know nothing about. Communities are changing. The environment deserves more attention than we give it. In the rush, we can overlook both the problems that need our care and the good things that make life meaningful.

This was one of the thoughts that stayed with me after Active Hope, or the Work That Reconnects, a two-day Developing Christian Ministry (DCM) course held at the Anglican/Episcopal Church of Christ the King on 16 and 17 October 2026.

Organised by the Council of Anglican and Episcopal Churches in Germany (CAECG), the course drew on the work of Joanna Macy and was led by the Revd Christopher Jage-Bowler of Berlin and Monica Mueller-Roemer of Frankfurt. Through reflection, prayer and interactive group practices, participants explored how to respond to the challenges of our time without losing connection, purpose or possibility.

What made it so thought-provoking was its starting point: gratitude.

The Habit of Business as Usual

Most of us know the phrase Business as Usual. It describes our tendency to carry on as we always have, following familiar routines and focusing on whatever is in front of us.

There is nothing wrong with routine. It helps us organise our lives and meet our duties. The trouble begins when routine becomes autopilot and leaves no room to notice what is changing around us.

We stop asking bigger questions. How are the people around us really doing? What is happening in our communities? What are we taking for granted? Are our daily choices moving us towards the kind of world we want?

The course made me reflect on how easily we miss things simply because we are used to carrying on. We often notice a problem only when it touches us directly. We overlook the struggles of others because we are managing our own. We fail to appreciate what is working because our attention is fixed on what needs to improve.

Seeing this pattern is not about blaming ourselves for being busy. It is about becoming aware of how we live, and of what our attention leaves out.

Why Start with Gratitude?

When we think about the world's challenges, gratitude can seem an odd place to begin. Surely the urgent task is to name the problems and find solutions?

But gratitude is not pretending that everything is fine. It widens our view.

When we look only at what is wrong, it becomes hard to see anything beyond the problem, and we can feel overwhelmed, frustrated or powerless. Recognising what we value does not make the difficulties disappear, but it reminds us what is worth protecting and working towards.

Gratitude often begins with something ordinary: a conversation with a friend, a colleague who offers support, a place where we feel safe, a moment of quiet in a demanding day. These things seem small, yet noticing them changes how we experience our lives. It brings us back to the present and reminds us that even in hard times, things matter.

Gratitude also turns our attention outward. Appreciating the support we receive makes us more aware of the support others need. Valuing our surroundings encourages us to care for them. Understanding what gives our own lives meaning helps us see why the well-being of others matters too.

Gratitude becomes more than a feeling when it influences how we respond.

Active Hope: Moving Beyond Worry

The course introduced Active Hope, an idea drawn from Joanna Macy's work that challenges how we usually think about hope.

We often hope that things will improve, that a problem will resolve itself or that someone else will find the answer. Hope becomes something we wait for. Active Hope asks a different question: whatever the likely outcome, what can I do to contribute to a better one?

It does not ask us to believe that everything will turn out as we wish. It invites us to name what matters to us and to take steps that reflect it.

Compare worrying about the waste we produce with making a real effort to reduce it. Compare feeling concerned for someone who is struggling with taking the time to listen or offer practical help. The action may be small and may not solve the wider problem, but it moves us from concern to participation.

Active Hope does not claim that individuals can solve complex social, economic or environmental problems alone. Many of them need collective effort and changes to the systems we live in. It does challenge the idea that we must wait until we can do something significant before we do anything at all.

We can begin where we are, with the resources and opportunities available to us.

A Journey Through Four Stages

A central part of the course was the Spiral Journey, developed by Joanna Macy and her collaborators through the Work That Reconnects. It offers four stages for reconnecting with what matters and finding a way forward.

1. Gratitude. We begin by noticing what sustains us, what we value and what we want to protect.

2. Honouring our pain for the world. We acknowledge our concern, sadness and frustration instead of dismissing them or pretending all is well.

3. Seeing with new eyes. We look at situations from a different angle, recognise our connections with others and consider possibilities we had not noticed.

4. Going forth. We find ways to put what we have learned into practice through our choices, relationships and actions.

The process accepts that difficult emotions and hopeful possibilities can live side by side. We do not need to deny what hurts in order to appreciate what is good, and we do not need to settle every uncertainty before we act.

Nor is the journey a straight line. We may return to gratitude when we feel overwhelmed, rethink our perspective when circumstances change, or find a new way forward after a setback. It is a way of returning, again and again, to what matters, and learning to respond more consciously.

Three Stories We Can Choose to Live By

The course also explored three stories that describe how we understand the present moment.

Business as Usual is the continuation of familiar habits and systems, even when they no longer serve us well.

The Great Unravelling describes the crises and disruptions that expose the weaknesses in those familiar ways of living.

The Great Turning describes the efforts of people and communities to build a more sustainable, life-supporting future.

Moving between these stories is not always comfortable. It can be unsettling to see that familiar ways of doing things may have to change, and facing hard realities can leave us unsure what comes next.

Yet awareness is where we begin. We cannot respond thoughtfully to what we refuse to notice. The Great Turning invites us to see change as the sum of many actions: rethinking our habits, strengthening our communities, supporting better systems and working with others towards shared goals. It shifts the question from whether we can solve every problem to how we can contribute to meaningful change.

Taking the Lesson Beyond Frankfurt

The course included meditations, spiritual texts and practical activities linked to each stage of the Spiral Journey, indoors and outdoors. The aim was not just to talk about hope but to explore practices we could keep using in our own lives.

For me, the reflection on Business as Usual remains the most relevant. It is easy to leave an inspiring experience and slip back into old routines within days. Perhaps the challenge is to make awareness part of everyday life.

We can start with a few minutes each day to notice what we are grateful for. We can listen properly when someone speaks, instead of thinking about what we need to do next. We can acknowledge what troubles us without letting it consume us. And we can ask what one practical step would make a positive difference.

These are not grand solutions. They are ways of interrupting autopilot and living more deliberately, and over time such small changes can shape our relationships, our decisions and our willingness to take part in the wider world.

A Different Place to Begin

The problems facing the world are real, and gratitude alone will not solve them. But constant worry does not guarantee a good response either.

Between ignoring a problem and being overwhelmed by it lies another possibility: to notice what is happening, understand why it matters and decide how to respond. That is what makes Active Hope so useful. It lets us acknowledge uncertainty without becoming passive, and appreciate what is good without ignoring what must change.

Perhaps we do not always need another plan, another target or another reason to hurry. Sometimes we need to stop long enough to see what has been around us all along: to notice the people we have overlooked, to appreciate what we have taken for granted, to face what troubles us, and then, with a clearer sense of what matters, to take the next step.

What might we begin to see if we stopped living on autopilot, even for a moment?

Perhaps the first step towards a different future is simply learning to pay attention.

Key Takeaways

1. Business as Usual is a habit of autopilot. Noticing it is the first step.

2. Gratitude is not pretending all is well. It widens our view and shows what is worth protecting.

3. Active Hope is something we do, not something we wait for.

4. Small, practical steps move us from concern to participation.

5. Difficult feelings and hopeful possibilities can exist together.

6. The Spiral Journey is not a straight line. We can return to any stage.

7. Awareness must become part of everyday life to last beyond the course.

About the Author

Maureen Mwende Njagi