Love hopes all things

Once I explained to someone who had been in a particular need for a long time that I was confident the need would be met.  My reason for that confidence was both objective and subjective:  I had prayed about the need for many years, soaking my requests in the good brine of Scripture (objective, that); and over those years my heart had grown more and more full of Hope in God's grace working through my prayers (subjective, somewhat).

It was a lovely moment when I read this validation of my experience.  I refer once more to the words of Phil Ryken:

        Love hopes all things.  Understand that whenever we give up hope, this is really a failure to love, because love hopes.  Love hopes that someone lost in sin will believe the gospel.  It hopes that a broken relationship will be reconciled.  It hopes that by the grace of God, sin will be forgiven, and forgiven again.  It hopes that even after a long struggle, there will still be spiritual progress.  It hopes that someone who has fallen away can be restored to useful service in the kingdom of God.  It even hopes that when a body gets sick and dies, it will be raised again at the last day.
       Love hopes all these things and then holds out that hope to the people it loves.  Love is willing to hope because it desires the very best in someone else's life.  It is able to hope because it puts its ultimate confidence in the God of love and in his grace for people in need. (p. 108, Loving the Way Jesus Loves, emphasis mine)

The people we love most are certainly the ones whose needs most heavily weigh upon us--often with profound disappointment, perhaps disappointment in the persons themselves.  What if we treat that disappointment with a refusal to give up hope?