“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.” – Marcus Aurelius
This is the third and final post in my series concerning the topic of finding hope. Originally, I was going to end this series with a call to action, calling leadership at all levels of community, to provide all people with good reasons to hope. In a sense, I was going to ask you all to call upon our leaders to provide and institute actions that would solve the problems that I discussed in the second installment of this series.
A quick restatement of the issues addressed in the second installment of this series leads us toward further action and eventual hope. Those issues include: healthcare, poverty, debt (personal and aggregate), violence, self-reliance, education, religion, and maintaining our unity.
These topics appear almost daily in the news media, social media, and in our conversations. We all know the challenges that occur when solutions of these issues are neglected or otherwise overlooked.
These issues create anxiety which, if unchecked, will lead to despair. Those who have hope, however, counter the despair with faith in beliefs that make up their foundational hope. So the question becomes, what is your hope, a hope that results in countering anxiety and despair? This assumes that you are seeking some level of happiness and contentment in your lives and the lives of those with whom you share your love.
For people of faith, the answer is in the ultimate triumph of good over evil, to know that in this life, faith, hope, and love instruct us as we seek to overcome the ill effects of the eight issues above. Hope comes in service to the least, the last, and the lost. Hope comes from sharing what you have with others who are wanting. Hope is found in communities of like-minded individuals who strive to end suffering and hardship. Serving the greater good produces hope.
If all people had equal opportunities and resources in an area such as education, think of what the result might be? If all people had the opportunity to lead healthy and fulfilling lives, think of the hope that would point to. If we eradicated the underlying causes of violence, think of the hope we would be free to pursue.
In short, hope begins with a stable and safe environment in which to grow and develop one’s potential for the value of goodness. Hope begins when we desire to rise above the sadness and sorrows we all encounter. We need to believe that in every situation that confronts us, there is an opportunity to grow and overcome that which holds us from true joy and happiness.
In a recent conversation, someone reminded me of the Golden Rule – “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” That’s a great place to start, but living with hope (for good) suggests that we should do unto others that which meets their needs, and while in our interaction with others, reminding ourselves of what we have to offer others. Simply, it is self-less service for the benefit of others.
Finally, I ask the question again – what gives you hope? What do you believe in that affirms you and nurtures you? In what do you have faith? What do you love?
You see when we stop asking those simple questions and allow ourselves to go without attending to faith, hope, and love, we really have no purpose or reason to contribute to the goodness that is needed for a fully functioning community – we really don’t have foundational hope.
Look at your own life – do you have faith, hope, and love? If not, what are you doing to bring those three things into your lives? And if you do have those three, how are you insuring that others will have the opportunities and experiences necessary in their lives to acquire a foundation built on faith, hope, and love?
“…look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
Your foundational hope needs your attention. And if by chance you meet someone without hope in their lives, consider sharing with them what you know and what you have experienced so far in life. It may help them and it will surely remind you that we all are created in the image of a loving and all caring Spirit – whatever name or names by which we know the Spirit at work.
Galatian 5:22-23 – “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
These are your gifts to help you as you live into foundational hope.
My biggest hope is that human beings will realize that we must change human nature if we are to avoid the catastrophe we’re wreaking on ourselves and all living things. (No, it’s not “global warming” — it’s a climate crisis just to name one piece of the picture accurately.) We must look human nature in the face, see it for what it is, acknowledge the disastrous and horrifying place it has brought us to, identify the changes we need to start making (like rewarding and encouraging the best in our natures instead of the worst — see election for one example of how we currently do the opposite) and then start making them. Part of this involves looking at female and male natures honestly as well — they are different in some important ways and have different impacts on the world. We won’t find out whether we can change human nature unless we try. It’s my hope that we’ll realize we must try.
Absolutely. The whole of creation and the creatures living within that creation require that change must occur or disaster awaits us all. I do have hope.