Interview with McKaela Laxen

Part One from our “Hope: More Than Christian Positivity” Series

Photo of McKaela

McKaela Laxen was born and raised in Burnsville, Minnesota, and now resides in Minneapolis. She studied French and Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas and spent the first year post-grad as an au pair in Palaiseau, France, strolling along the Seine and enjoying as much pain au chocolat as humanly possible. A Cradle Catholic, faith has always been a presence in her life, taking deeper root each day. In her free time, she enjoys playing with friends, perusing Target, and dreaming of living on the coast of Maine. Her highest score in bowling is a solid 170 and her favorite points to collect in cribbage are nobs.

McKaela’s Interview

What is an area in your life where you have been called to have greater hope?

I feel called to have hope that God has a great plan for my life. A great life worth living.

I was sitting in adoration the other night and thought, “Really? Is this it?” Life had become so drab and boring and mundane because I allowed it to be. Because I put myself into a little box, not really allowing for any space for the Lord to work and surprise me with the good things he wants to share with me. It makes me think of this greeting card I saw a million years ago at this boutique I used to work at - it read, “Adventure may scare you, but mundanity will kill you.”

As I dig into it, and as much as I’ve tried, I can’t separate hope and trust. Because this hope for a better, more fulfilling life cannot be separated from trusting that the Lord will come through. [And because]...,he is good. Because it’s really easy to think, sure he’ll come through, but whatever he wants to give me is going to be boring and probably not what I actually want.

But! God literally said, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer. 29:11)

At the bare minimum, we can take the Lord at a life which will be prosperous to us - which doesn’t just mean to get by. To be prosperous is to be flourishing, thriving, over-loaded with goodness. What more could we want? Not to mention, his plans “will not harm you.” There is actually nothing to lose here.

Again, in Matthew 7:9-11 he says, “Which of you if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

A colleague of mine, amidst all the rioting in Minneapolis earlier this year, mentioned that hope isn’t just wishing for things to get better. Hope is expecting things to change for the better. Hope expects.

Based on these two tiny snippets of the bible, we can rest assured in the hope, in the expectancy, that God has a great life for us. Why? Because he told us that that is exact what he has to offer us.

And so I have hope that the life that God has for me is far greater than the one that I’ve been trying to scheme out. I have hope that God can make great things happen and will make great things happen. Just gotta open that little take-out sized box you’ve put yourself in and trust that He is good and for your good.

Have you seen positivity fall short in this area? How has hope been different?

The main way that I see positivity falling short is that it can come across as blatantly ignoring the fact that you're disappointed in some way or another. Hope, on the other hand, seems to accept the truth of the situation in order to expect a better outcome or ending. I think positivity is needed and great in its own right, however, I think to hope is to have the courage to trust that

God can change things for the better, regardless of how impossible that might seem. Jesus literally raised himself from the dead - he can do whatever he wants.

Do you consider yourself a positive person? How has this impacted the way you relate to hope?

I consider myself relatively positive. Quite honestly, I know it’s a cop-out, but it really depends who I’m with. [When I’m] alone, I would say I tend to be less positive than I would be if I were with others or talking about their lives/problems. I think it makes it a bit harder to hope. It’s sometimes far too easy (and fun honestly) to be cynical and expect the worst. It seems like you really have to work against that natural inclination of thinking the worst in order to try to get yourself to expect the goodness that God has in store. Like how easy would it be to think “Really? Is this it?” and then to just live your life with that as your creed? It takes courage to hope, it takes action. It requires you to move and to step outside of yourself. Despair is much more of a passive submission. I’m not a huge fan of the fact that I’m about to quote Chesterton, but he sums this up quite nicely: “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

What practices have helped you come to know Jesus more in pursuit of hope?

Honestly, making decisions. Actual decisions that change my life, which shows me that I have the capability to cause change in my life, even if it’s small. I think mainly because the Lord wants us to have great lives, but we have to take part in that. And so in playing my part, I think it’s shown the teamwork that happens between myself and the Lord in cultivating a beautiful and rich life. I think this furthers my hope in him because instead of wishing for a great life, it can actually take effect in my day-to-day. And I’ve noticed that things seem hopeless when I feel stuck.

It’s tricky to explain, but I find hope in making decisions which then have an effect in my life in a positive way, because it shows me that things can indeed change.

Do you have a favorite Scripture passage or quote about hope?

I heard this poem in college and I love it. I think about it quite often to remind myself that life really is an adventure, we just have to say yes.

The Summer Day, Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean--

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down --

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.