Hope is what gives each one of us the promise of something good despite the odds; it is a desire to attain something even when reality indicates otherwise. Through hope, our minds are set in a positive disposition and thereby giving us something to look forward to and the patience to wait. All of us hope for different things in life. We are always hoping to become millionaires, to own our own house, to start a successful company, to finish an assignment before the deadline, for recovery from illness, among many others.
Hope and the Dream for Success
Thus hope is something that drives people. Those who want to live the American dream, from grass to riches, are driven by the hope that they can make it despite the challenges. Indeed people who have risen to the top have had difficulties, disappointments, challenges and have been constantly energized by the hope to eventually make it.
Hope is therefore a heart- warming blend of desire, expectation, patience and joy. According to Martin Buxbaum, hope is an emotional medicine indispensible to the soul. And according to Zig Zigler, the letters HOPE stand for “Honest Optimism based on Personal Efforts”.
Energy to Pray
There is an English idiom which says “hoping against hope” to imply there is hope in-spite of their being limited chances of success. We have at one time or another had to hope against hope that our loved one would recover even when the diagnosis from the Doctor says it is a terminal condition.
Spiritually, too, it is hope that gives us the energy to pray. We pray hoping to receive from God. Hope is what reinforces our faith in God. We hope that when we pray God is listening to us and that we shall enter heaven after the physical death.
Winning Against the Odds
In sports, we have watched matches where our favored team is the under dog, but we hope that they shall win all the same. Even for the under rated team, they get inspired when they face a superior team. Their optimism to overcome the superior team is based on hope and the reality that others have done it in the past. And under dog teams win despite the odds against them.
So whatever, the circumstance, we can rest on our hope that things will get better. Hope gives us the drive to face tomorrow with confidence. It makes us believe that our fortunes will be better tomorrow. But even as we hope, let us work hard towards the attainment of what we hope for in life.
