What is hope?
Is it an emotion? A belief? A feeling?
How would you define it?
Is it inspiring? Encouraging? Propelling?
Sir Webster would call it a feeling of desire for a certain thing to happen. I would call it more of an expectation that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.
If you really think about it, hope is a lot like air. Air is all around us. Air is not going anywhere and we need it to live. It fills the spaces between us and there is nothing we can do about it. Our bodies crave it, it is our fuel source. We need it to exercise, to eat, to sleep, to talk, to walk. In everything in life we need air! With every trigger in our brain that sets off the inhaling process we expect or “hope” that air will be there. We anticipate it filing our lungs, giving us energy, momentum, inspiration for the next moment in our life.
Conversely, without the appearance of air very quickly our bodies begin to realize its impossibility to continue. Without it we gasp, strain or maybe even beginning running to a place where we can find it. Our bodies within 90 seconds begin shutting down; if we are unable to find it within 3 minutes we are dead.
So what does this mean for you today? What do you take away from this analogy? This…..HOPE = LIFE
Just as we need air to live and we also need hope. Without either one, we have no chance of living. Maybe we don’t pass physically without hope in our lives, but spiritually, emotionally, psychologically we are done without it.
Hope gives us life. It encourages us, it gives us energy, makes us feel good. Our hearts and souls long for it. It fills up our life by bringing love and expectation. It helps us stay balanced and healthy. Hope bridges the gap in relationships with poor history. Hope enables us to believe that a better day is ahead. Hope reassures us that even in the darkest of days that we can overcome.
So wherever life has taken you, whatever struggle you may be facing, however big the challenge is before you. Today my hope is that after you read this, that hope will become alive in you. That your burden becomes a little lighter, that maybe for the first time in years you begin to believe that you can have hope again.
But where does it come from? How can you obtain a hope that you haven’t felt in years?
I know some of you are asking these questions. There is an answer. Over the next few weeks we will begin to unpack where we find our hope. How hope can change our lives and how we can pass it along to others. So stay tuned.
Until then, if you need some encouragement, a little shot of Hope. Check out some of these videos…