I am reading a remarkable book by Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant and Conversation, a Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible. This volume concerns the book of Genesis and contains many insights and reflections by this wonderful man, such as this one:
Faith is the ability to live with delay without losing trust in the promise; to experience disappointment without losing hope, to know that the road between the real and the ideal is long and yet be willing to undertake the journey. That was Abraham’s and Sarah’s faith, and that of Moses and the prophets and those who came after them. And surely it must be ours. God delivers all He promises, but not always when we expect. . . . To wait without despair, to hope and keep on hoping: that is the faith of Abraham and Sarah’s children, the faith that they themselves lived. And though it was shot through with disappointments, and though they themselves sometimes gave expression to their doubts and fears, it did not prove in vain.”
Witnesses to Hope 