| |
|
|
|
Everything
that is done in the world is done by hope.
—Lutero
Hope
ETERNAL
By Ardis
Whitman
|
|
When
hope dies, what else lives?
— Ama
Ata Aidoo
(1942–
), Ghanaian writer. |
|
|
 ope
is the mechanism that keeps the human race tenaciously alive
and dreaming, planning, building. Hope is not the opposite of
realism. It is the opposite of cynicism and despair. The best
of humanity has always hoped when there was no way, lived what
was unlivable, and managed to build when there was little to
build on.
"A merry heart does good
like a medicine," says the book of Proverbs, in the Bible.
This ancient knowledge has gained new confirmation in our time.
It was found after World War II, for example, that American
prisoners of war who had been convinced that they would come
out alive, whose mind and spirit were focused on life as it
was to be lived in the future, emerged with much less damage
than those who felt they would never go home again.
Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman, of
the University of Pennsylvania, has done much research on the
causes of depression, the disorder that affects millions every
year. He has found that depressed people regard every minor
obstacle as an impassable barrier. Responding to anything is
felt to be useless because "nothing I do matters."
Successful therapy, he told me, starts when we begin to believe
again that we can be effective human beings and can control
our lives.
A man I knew had an alcoholic
wife. Again and again she disappointed him. But he never lost
hope. One night, she shamed him in front of old friends. Afterward,
she broke into tears. "Why don't you leave me?" she
cried. "Because I remember a very beautiful person,"
he answered. "And I believe she's still there." Ultimately,
she did recover. |
|
| |
 |
We
hope as naturally as the seeds sprout and the sun rises, and
perhaps for the same reasons. Hope's signature seems to be written
on earth and sky and sea and all that lives. But natural and
vital as hope may be, we can lose it. With many of us, hope
simply grows tired as our lives grow tired.
Precisely because hope is in the
natural flow of life, it is unleashed naturally by removing
the abnormal impediments that |
|
|
|
May
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you
trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by
the power of the Holy Spirit (The Bible, Romans 15:13
NIV).
Finally
our hope and faith are strong and steady. Then, when
that happens, we are able to hold our heads high no
matter what happens and know that all is well, for we
know how dearly God loves us. (The Living Bible, Romans
5:4b–5.)
|
|
|
block
it. Here are some suggestions:
Hope for the moment.
There are times when it is hard to believe in the future,
when we are temporarily just not brave enough. When this happens,
concentrate on the present. Cultivate le petit bonheur
("the little happiness") until courage returns.
Look forward to the beauty of the next moment, the next hour,
the promise of a good meal, sleep, a book, a movie, the immediate
likelihood that tomorrow the sun will rise. Sink roots into
the present until the strength grows to think about tomorrow.
Take action. "When
I can't see any way out," a stranger wrote me some years
ago, "I do something anyway." This is good advice
to anyone paralyzed by despair.
Believe in hope. Don't
be persuaded that the pessimists have a corner on truth. These
people would rather live in the fog of skepticism than chance
disappointment. It is the adult in us, not the child, which,
when knocked down, gets up again and says, against the odds,
"Tomorrow will be better." Hope is not a lie, but
the truth itself.
So, summon hope. It is as right
as spring sunlight. It is a goal in itself, an exercise in
gallantry, a frame of mind, a style of life, a climate of
the heart.
|
|
|
