“’Hope’ is the thing with feathers,
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune
Without the words—
and never stops at all—"
emily dickinson
Have you ever been without hope? “Hope deferred makes the heart sick,” (Proverbs 13:12). When you have no hope you have no will to live. When you are lost and alone in the virtual desert, and all hope is gone of ever connecting to anyone, or escaping the desert, facing a new day becomes unbearable. Hope is really the key to life. What joy is there in a hopeless life? NONE! I would warrant a guess that victims of suicide know exactly what hopelessness feels like. And if anyone reading this has ever attempted suicide…or seriously considered it…then you probably have a pretty good idea yourself. Hope can motivate us, encourage us, sustain us, and get us through almost anything deemed unsurviveable…just the hope of escaping and overcoming is enough. But without hope, we waste away to nothing inside, and we let our circumstances overcome us.
Let’s take a moment to look at what hope is defined as:
noun
1. 1. a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
2. 2. archaic
a feeling of trust.
Based on this definition (Webster-derived), I think hope requires trust. With trust you can have a feeling of expectation and allow yourself to feel a desire for something to change. If you have no trust that a power greater than yourself can change things, then you will not allow yourself to have hope. In other words, hope cannot really exist without faith in a Higher Power. For me, all my hope is found in Jesus. Where do you get your hope?
How do you find hope when you have none?? What is the situation you have no hope about? Is there a way to change it? Leave it? Escape it? Remake it? Can you re-evaluate and be sure you are not focused on “what-ifs” rather than the present realities? Can you try to follow the tenants of the Serenity Prayer….”God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference,” ……change what you can….and what you cannot change, ACCEPT. Can you release the situation to God and TRUST that He will bring you through into a new season? Can you take some distinctive actions toward change, and accept the process in the meantime?
If you can’t change anything else, change your focus. You are still alive today. You are breathing today. You have hope TODAY. Shift into an attitude of gratitude and focus on all the positive things…what good things have you experienced in life? What miracles have you witnessed or heard about? What do you have today that you can say thank you for? Regardless of how bad things are, they can always be worse. Life is continually fluctuating and changing, nothing is everlasting. The bad, the negative, the trials...they, too, shall pass. Hang on to the hope of that and remember to enjoy the good moments you have today :).
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13).