There is little hope in life without self-discipline, purpose, and intentionality/effort. The amount of hope we live into is in direct proportion to how committed we become to discipline, purpose, and effort in our lives. In living into these three conditions, we acknowledge some discomfort will come our way. That discomfort lessens as we become actively involved in living a life that is guided by a noble purpose.
Different folks are going to read this post with different understanding. Folks of faith who are looking for hope already have a model to follow. The One, the model people of faith follow, provides lessons for a journey of faith requiring discipline, a direction in which to proceed, and an on-going, consistent effort to reach the source of hope.
Folks who do not define themselves as people of faith, nevertheless can find hope. Their journey of hope also requires a disciplined life (i.e. showing up to work), a purpose or direction for living that leads to something of importance, and a sustained effort to live with more intention than just going through the motions.
Have people of faith found a greater purpose or reward than folks who discount a belief in eternal life? Do they possess more virtue than those who do not profess a faith-based hope? No.
What does one have at the end of one’s life?
The answer to that question is either: a) you have nothing at the end of your life except the grave or b) you have hope for eternity that has been built on a belief and faith there is life beyond the grave.
If one lives life accumulating material possessions, of what value is that? We have accumulated things. We may even have accumulated wonderful memories, but at our death those, memories are no longer ours. Neither are our accumulated possessions.
Without something eternal in which to place our hope, life is pretty much all about the 80-90 years we have on earth. Is there any place for hope to arise in this scenario? Does life indeed end at death? What was the purpose of the self-discipline, the purpose, the effort?
For people who believe that death is the end, I would like to suggest that hope may still be found by living a life of noble purpose – righting some wrong, serving those marginalized and forgotten, bringing peace and reconciliation to disagreeing parties. Your hope finds its genesis in leaving the world better than when you arrived, not because of what you have accumulated but despite what you accumulated. The world contains a little more hope if you have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, sheltered those without a home or attended to the least, the last, and the lost.
Each kindness we show adds to the hope of those who feel forgotten and unloved.
We all can find hope in this life by living with self-discipline, purpose and effort all the while accomplishing something noble. For people of faith, we have a great teacher to follow. For folks to whom our teacher is a stranger, you too can find hope. One of my teacher’s lessons is to love one another and to serve. Other teachers have used other words but all great efforts to live a life fulfilling a noble purpose find a central theme in seeking ways to ease the suffering of all those we encounter. This includes seeking ways to ease our own suffering. How to ease our own suffering will be the subject of an upcoming post.
In seeking to ease suffering, hope is found.
