Hope

Foundational

Value

What is Hope:

Hope looks to the future and knows not the past. It is a desire with a confidence of that desire being fulfilled.

Hope is to believe at one’s aspiration to improve, to grow, to Love, to help, to achieve in the time ahead, is valuable, possible, and attainable.

Hope energizes positive thoughts and action. Hope generates purpose and vision. Hope moves People and Nations. Hope is the confidence a person or group experiences when they expect their needs will be more than fulfilled and the best can be expected.

The Hopeful are best known by their steadfast determination and a belief Good shall always triumph over Evil.

The Greatest of All Hope lies in those who know God is real, God is Love, and God assists us through life with learning, challenge, wisdom in the world seen and worlds unseen.

Examples of Hope:

This Life of Ours is full of tests, trials, obstacles, hurdles, hills to climb, and crises to deal with.

The challenges we face are for a purpose, to strengthen our character, to advance our knowledge and to prepare us for an Eternal Future in a Different Reality. Hope is our sustaining energy of will and mind and heart, that will get us successfully there. Sometimes it is our hope and sometimes it is another’s hopeful actions helping us.

Examples of Hope are:

An Eye Surgeon, who just fixed the cataracts in a senior’s eyes; the EMT professional who just brought a cardiac patient back to life; the Pharmacist who prevented a life-threatening drug interaction from happening; A Volunteer answering the suicide crisis line.

The Pope Francis, affirming our lives by uplifting our hearts, by praying for us, by his example of poverty, his love of life, his simplicity of spirit, generosity of heart, and unshakable faith in God.

Anti-Value: Pessimism

The opposite of Hope is Pessimism.

It is a state of mind where one is overcome with the negativity of doubt , fear, suspicion; leading one to a perpetual state of confusion in both mind & heart.

Pessimism hardens within a person; a foundation of despair. Wherein, looking at one’s life with any positivity is hardly possible.

The futility of accepting defeat firmly roots; hollowing the mind & heart of self initiative & action.

A pessimistic person invariably slumps into despair, losing their drive and aspirations for the future.

Pessimistic people eventually become devoid of positive thinking. For them, there is nothing to look forward to, nothing to aim for, nothing to accomplish, nothing to love.

Biblical References of Hope:

Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Romans 15:13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

Romans 12:12: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

Romans 5:2-5: “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”