Growing with Hope: What Do You Really Want?
If you had not noticed, i recently became a grandfather. He is my first grandchild and one thing he accomplishes just by being in my presence is that he makes me happy. Even before he was born, a lot of things would go through my mind about him. I would say to myself I hope he is born healthy, I hope he has 10 fingers and 10 toes and I hope I make it to the hospital in time for his birth. That word hope kept coming up over and over again. Hope has gotten me through many trying times in my life. In India.Arie’s song There’s Hope, she talks about a little boy she met in Brazil that was poor and had no eyesight but he felt he lived in paradise and was going to become a singer like her. Meeting this young man helped her to reflect on all that she complained about when she was living the life he hoped for. I have found that hoping for things has kept me uplifted into being happy. Richard Lazarus tells us that hope is fearing the worst while yearning for the best. When we hope for things that end up becoming true, it gives us unmatched feeling of joy. My grandson is healthy, has all of his fingers and toes and he did wait for me to get there before he arrived. What are some of the great things that you have hoped for that you have seen happen?
Andy
December 3, 2013 at 5:55 amCongratulations Paul on being a grandfather and witnessing the miracle of parenthood through a slightly different yet no less significant lens and role that became known first as a father to make possible what exists in the present.
I’ve found hope to be ingrained in our spiritual DNA and the catalyst to exercise faith as a principle of action to prove that which is believed. In fact, I would go so far as to suggest nothing we obtain in this life occurs without hope having place in us first.
Hope without faith is putting trust without firsthand immersion to learn what cannot be vicariously or academically known by any other way or means appointed in the acquisition of knowledge. Quite simply, when we leap by making choices of hope unto faith, we become more the measure of our creation in progressing to learn by experience. Through the course of a mortal lifetime, such patterns have great power to transform us.
God has created a perfect eternal plan to help His children grow by walking in faith to understand what it means to possess patience and not immediately know the outcome of hope for future events, yet believe with enough fortitude to carry us across times of trials, afflictions, and joy to see the fruit of our labors unfold in tandem with God’s will.
Such are patterns where hope is the tie that binds associations to each successive event of faith realized from predecessors of origin ingrained of hope. We truly do reap what is sown in hope, time, patience, and the action of diligence to not let opposition stand in the way of acquiring truth through determination to prove hope. Likewise derives the adage of enjoying the journey of life, not just the sum total of experiences.
Many miracles and blessings can be seen when I exercise hope unto faith within a single day right down to a moment. But, when hope is not in me because of momentarily feeling overcome by the perils of life, then there is temporary stagnation of growth. This is when I am tempted to believe no action can produce desired results and hence, I submit myself to be acted upon, versus act to seize destiny. Fatalism is contrary to God’s plan and will that we have been given dominion over the earth by the degree we act in hope and faith to prove all things for truth.
It is only when moments of helplessness and hopelessness give way to becoming filled with hope once again, am I able to see beyond the myopic perspective that I am unworthy just because things do not go my way and outcomes are far removed from previous expectations. Hope is the grain of mustard seed, which is the smallest of all herbs in this form, yet when it grows up unto faith and knowledge, becomes a great tree above the other larger seeds, where now the fowls can dwell. Even so, a particle of faith predicated upon hope can change everything.
May we who all are God’s divine children never allow ourselves to live beneath the privileges afforded us in this life if we but look up and walk forward in hope knowing that good will come of everything, no matter our lot in life, mistakes, regrets, or set of past and current circumstances.
For if we could just see with our spiritual eyes for but a moment and know of a certainty that this life is far more than temporal experiences and blessings, we can truly begin to understand God’s nature and the eternal significance of mortality existing as the ultimate instrument of learning and progression towards a degree of glory that far exceeds any successes we obtain here.
These realizations all begin with hope and seeing beyond ourselves as a result of life events toward a greater light and truth that is often lost in a modern world promising many things, yet very few of them endure the test of time as lasting happiness. Such is by design and setting our hearts upon the eternal can be a cornerstone of moving from fleeting hope and reduced fulfillment to the permanence of eternal joy and glimpses of that reality received here in the details of each day.
Carpe Diem indeed!