Ecclesiastes 3:2-4, 8 states there is a time for everything. A time for birth and a time for dying… a time for killing and a time for healing, a time for demolishing and a time for building, a time for crying and a time for laughing, a time for mourning and a time for dancing … a time for loving and a time for hating, a time for making war and a time for peace.
Some of the greatest lessons in life is that hope is a good thing, perhaps even the best of things. And no good thing ever dies. Motion – taking action – is the best kind of therapy. You either get busy living or get busy dying. Among those who suffer from clinical depression, those who engage in physical activity, such as jogging, recover at roughly the same rate as those who take medication in the form of prescription drugs.
The upshot of this research is that our feelings respond to movement and that motion and emotion are linked. Love is hardly a static quality, nor is compassion. For love to be love, it must be given arms and legs. How we act affects how we feel. Getting out of the circle of self and opening ourselves to addressing the needs of others results in unexpected blessing.
Love, in all its manifestations, is an eternally popular theme, featured more often than hope.
In truth, however, we might want to stress hope even more than love, for it is hope that energizes love, hope that lends love its spirit, hope that transforms despair into healing. As much as love, if not more than hope is the emotion that brings forth motion. Love and desire are the spirit’s wings to great deeds.
Hope is strength, courage, fortitude. As long as there is hope, there is reason to go on. As long as we draw breath, there is hope for the future, and hope generates healing. There is no adversity that cannot be conquered, as long as we have hope. Just as important, hope has a dynamic ally in love. “Love conquers all!”
Obstacles are flattened; adversaries are neutralized. Never underestimate either the dynamic of hope, or the power of love.
Westerners know least about is mourning. We are trained from earliest childhood to hold back our tears, to retain our composure, to restrain ourselves. Males in our culture are taught to be a man certainly means not being allowed to cry. What a pity! A true man shows all feelings!
Jewish tradition is a prescribed period of intense mourning, for seven days. Jeremiah 6:26 says “clothe yourself in sackcloth, and roll around in the dust! Mourn deeply …wail intensely.” Grief is only human, and to hold it back is to deny our humanity. When we vent our grief, we pave the way, metaphysically, for even greater joy in the future. Devoted to lamentation is that expressing the fullness of grief opens the door for moving into the future. Mourning can be turned into gladness. It is a part of the circle of life that new things are built on the ruins of the old, that joy springs forth from the valley of despair.
If you run from pain, if you hide from grief, you short-circuit that process. Instead, hold the grief to your bosom. Vent it, write it, even sing it. Then let it go, and that very process will fill your heart with hope.
Reach out with your feelings, move in consonance with them, and let your spirit soar.
You will find that love really is all around.
We wouldn’t be able to taste the fullness of joy if we had never tasted the tears of sorrow.
4 comments:
wow!
Good word, thank you
That was great!
Good Morning;
I must say, I like what you have to say here, about hope.
All too often people (especially in the West)have very little hope, thusly they are most often to despair.
If I may though, I do not think you have gone far enough.
What exactly is hope?
Hope is not a noun, it is not an end to itself.
Hope is a verb. A verb describes the action in a sentence, or it describes what is going to happen, occur.
Merriam-Webster defines the word hope this way:
intransitive verb
1) a-to cherish a desire with anticipation
b-to want something to happen or be true
transitive verb
1) to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment
2) to expect with confidence
In your essay titled: Holy Writ, you talk about hope. But not once do you describe in what that hope ought to be placed. I know many many faithless people who have a ton of hope for a better life and future. When asked why they have such a hope, they just say that they do,...it is a vain and foolish hope in nothing. It is in essences wishful thinking nothing more.
As people of the Book, people of Faith, people called by God to be His very own, our hope MUST be rooted in Him, in His Glory, His Honor, His Majesty, His Mercy, His Faithfulness.
In 1Cor. the famous "love" chapter, Paul writes that "love hopes all things"esv. In English the sentence is not incomplete, but implied, that Love in Christ, in fact God himself who is Love (1Jn) will work out all things for His good pleasure and the salvation of those whom He has called to be His own.
Hebrews 11:1 states: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Hope here is not an end, hope is directed toward faith, we hope for something, in something,.... we cannot just hope in hope.
If our hope is just in hope, then we are to be pitied, for we truly have no real hope.
If however, our hope is in God, and not just "the man upstairs" but in the finished work of Christ Jesus, dying in our stead, taking our punishment upon Himself on the cross and His glorious resurrection, and in that alone, not that plus our own righteousness, our own obedience, our own goodness, that is something to not only hope in but to rejoice over!! For we were dead, DEAD in our sin like the rest of the world, but God being rich in love and mercy, made the dead(dead in sin, spiritually dead) come to life, made us alive in Christ, and saved us by His grace, through faith, so that we cannot boast or brag, all of this is His free gift to those he has called and chosen.(my paraphrase of Eph.2:1-9
In closing, hope is good, but do not leave your readers without a subject to place their hope within, lead them to Christ, to hope in Him, and in Him alone.
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