# Chine McDonald

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/thought-for-the-day-385283/chine-mcdonald
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/thought-for-the-day-385283/chine-mcdonald.md
Podcast: [Thought for the Day](https://stenobird.com/podcast/thought-for-the-day-385283)
Published: 2026-05-13T09:22:00+00:00
Episode link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0nkxnpz
Audio file: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0nkxknl.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/thought-for-the-day-385283/episodes/chine-mcdonald
Duration seconds: 188

## Resource

Good morning, In Monday’s speech, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer used the word ‘hope’ 14 times. He said the country would see hope reflected in government policy, and that “people need hope.” Today, faith groups and civil society organisations have launched a week-long initiative called A Million Acts of Hope – a nationwide invitation to celebrate the everyday acts of kindness, care and connection happening across the UK to combat the growing sense of division and polarisation so many feel. Many of us in Britain today can’t help but sense a growing hope-lessness. Perhaps it’s long been there and it’s the ever-present drum of social media and a 24-hour news cycle that have made it feel like it’s taken root. Politicians of all parties have long employed the language of hope in their speeches. It’s an appeal to the very human instinct to believe there’s a future state or condition that will be better in some way. But as a Christian, I believe hope is something much deeper than optimism, more than a sometimes blinkered decision to always look on the bright side. When in the book of Jeremiah God speaks of giving “a hope and a future”, it’s a profound promise of what’s to come, regardless of current circumstances. Hope itself is also active and not static. As Emily Dickinson described in her 1861 poem, it’s like a bird, a thing with feathers, that “perches in the soul” and “never stops at all”. As a nation – and as a world – we’ve been through so much in recent years: the worsening climate crisis, a pandemic, economic instability and turbulent politics. It feels like the nation can’t catch a break, and that we are breaking apart. But by engaging in these million acts of hope, those participating are offering an alternative narrative. As American episcopal priest Fleming Rut…

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## Transcript

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