The Journey of a Thousand Hopes

How many hopes have motivated you to a better situation or place in life? One, a hundred... probably a thousand is shy of the truth. Hope is the inspiration that fuels faith; when we can't say a word, when we believe we can't change a thing, we hope. We hope for a door to open, a path to appear or way to be made when there is no way. So long as we dare to hope, we must embrace faith, "believing in that which cannot be seen."

When these two are companions, hope lives and breathes a magic of its own. People are inspired to dance with greatness on the wings of hope. We can fly; even soar so long as we believe. Yet hope is born from hopelessness, the times when we simply cannot see the way that must be made. For if we saw, we would act. It is the nature of mankind. Hopelessness is the child of regret, guilt or feeling powerless over any situation that is crushing to your soul. And so, we meet the enemy whose name is hopelessness. No one likes him; he lives in the shadows and springs from the darkness from whence he was born like a thief or robber pouncing to steal our joy.

When this deadly enemy overtakes us, we believe there is no escape, no way to return to the path of joy and light where once we existed; hopelessness is on the scene. Something stirs from way down deep within us; it is the refusal to accept the darkness that surrounds this enemy and we cry out for help, in faith, refusing to accept that there is no way. Something wonderful happens; it is the response from above, your cries have filtered through the clouds and the starlit night and found their way to God. Hope has arrived like an armed guard, there to protect and guide you; to remind you that light always overcomes darkness.

It is frightening in the dark; hopelessness counts on this; that's why it resides there. Yet the tiniest light illuminates the face of this enemy and all that surrounds it. There in the corner are the chains of fear and despair that are used to bind us. All around us are the masks that guilt, shame and regret hide behind. Interestingly, we are able, in this very dim light, to see that these are costumes; masks and scary noises of despair to enable the guises to work, to paralyze us from reaching out to hope. Faith accompanied us on our entrance to life, a force so remarkable that there is no enemy it cannot defeat. It is always on the scene, here today as the light that exposes those guises and says, 'follow me.'