I have some core beliefs that have emerged over the years and though I struggle keeping them in ‘gear’ in my head and heart, I believe they are the most powerful things in life a man or woman can have.
Love
and
Hope
Maybe they go hand in hand, maybe not, but Hope is the most amazing thing, energy, mindset, belief someone can have. Hope seems to be the driver of all that is good in our lives. Love is the catalyst, gas or energy.
‘Love’ and ‘Hope’ are a powerful duet that, when played together, are unstoppable. When they harmony, we all stand up and applause. When we have ‘Hope’ we have a zest, zeal and enjoyment in life of everyday events, and life itself. When we don’t… well, things are unfortunately normal. What do I mean by ‘normal’? We are used to a life without ‘Hope’.
Let’s talk about ‘Hope’.
I grew up in the church world and use a lot of illustrations from that life, but our lack of ‘Hope’ is sorta how the church deals with sins. The bigs one, we jump up and down about, scream holler, shout, etc. The ones we’re used to? Well, they don’t get much air time. Why the disproportionate emphasis?
Culturally, we accept certain sins as normal.
Our life without ‘Hope’ is just like that. We just blindly go around without it ‘thinking’ it is normal and no big deal that it is missing.
I am not sure if you’ve noticed, but the good things in life don’t get that much air time. The bad, difficult things though, are forefront every hour of every day. Just an opinion, but whoever came up with 24 hour news should be shot. 24 hours of how the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket non-stop… Oh joy! Our news industry is built totally around the bad, the horrible and the worrisome. Stories are built on tag lines, and tag lines are written and designed to ‘catch’ your attention. Those taglines, 95% of the time, aren’t good or encouraging. Yes, it is true that from time to time, you will get the ‘heartwarming’ “Dog saves baby” story, but our lives are literally built around the stories of disaster, gloom, despair, or the prediction thereof. How many times do you contact a relative or friend and within 10 seconds they are telling you about everyone who is dying, or dead, or should be?!! 🙂
Maybe there is a 24 hour news channel out there that gives nothing but good news and positive stories but if there is… I haven’t seen it. Wonder why?
Why did we decide that ‘Hope’ is treated like a second class citizen, and not welcome at the table?
We’ve done the same thing with our religion. We proclaim ‘God loves You’ and then say right behind it, “You’ve got to do the following list of items or He will roast your backside in Hell.” I thought ‘Grace’ was undeserved favor and I thought the ultimate sacrifice meant we have Hope for the future here and in the afterlife and we didn’t have to cling to a set or rules to be okay?
(Sorry, the old preach came out. “back in the box boy”.)
‘Hope’ – “A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain good thing to happen.”
I will tell you, it is almost like it’s a crime to have ‘Hope’ in our society. Those that are ‘Hopeful’ are looked upon as crazy. What’s funny is, those that know me are saying to themselves, “Jeff Kennon has no room to talk here,” and they would be correct. I can have as small a mindset, and be as scared of life as anyone is out there. It is something I don’t like about myself, and it gives me grief all the time. But it also gives me a place where I can stand up, from time to time, and see just how bad the kool-aid that we are concocting/drinking everyday is, and speak out about it.
“Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops… at all.” -Emily Dickinson.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
And one of my all time favorites…
“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.”
― Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Without ‘Hope’ the grit of life overtakes, and the sands of time cover up and hide away, the precious gift that all of life is.
I have a class that I teach all of my new hires. I work in the tech world and I have employees that take customer service calls. It can be tough, and I prep them for the fact that most of the calls they get aren’t going to be happy people. We are a geeky sorta of company and I have a lot of Star Wars fans, so I used illustrations from the movies. We talk about how the ‘Dark Side of the Force’ flows more easily, and it’s true. We almost ‘thrive’ on negative emotion and situations.
Though I wouldn’t quote Yoda for my religious beliefs, it is true in life that the negative is a spark that we allow to jump more easily than the positive. I think the negative is in total opposition to ‘Hope’. I think there is a true, real, energetic, alive battle between ‘Hope’ and the ‘Anti-Hope’ that is all around us.
I am just like everyone else, and I have fears, real and imagined, that steal life away. I am not a violent person but I think it is time we take back, by force if necessary, our lives and start to have ‘Hope’ again.
No I am not giving some political speech here. I “hope” you all have learned or know by now, ‘Hope’ in a politician or government is the WRONG place to look for ‘Hope’.
I am talking about YOU, finding ‘Hope’ in your own soul, in your own life, where you live everyday.
What if it were, that not having ‘Hope’ was a crime or sin? Remember the story the ‘The Scarlet Letter’? What if we all had to walk around with a huge red NH (No Hope) on our chest everyday like Hester Prynne?
Sure you can take the victim path and say ‘Hope’ isn’t a choice.
I am beginning to think that isn’t true.
So I ask, “Why not ‘Hope’ for your situation?” If you can’t, why not find those that Love you and ask them to have ‘Hope’ for your situation? What would happen if we started treating ‘Hope’ like our children, and protect it the way we do our kids? What if ‘Hope’ was treated the way we treat our wives and husbands? (Well, that might not be a good illustration for some of you.)
What if ‘Hope’ was considered a precious commodity that we fight to keep, and strive to protect?
How about a challenge, just for today…
Why not ‘choose’ to be ‘Hopeful’ for just one day?
No matter what comes your way, pick up ‘Hope’, put her in your soul, and walk with her on your journey today.
What could it hurt?
