Hope: What Gets us out of Bed in the Morning

There is no greater torture than to live without hope. Recently, I participated in a conversation with 20 others about “love.” Almost all of the participants expressed their disappointments in finding or keeping love going. In many cases, they had lost hope, not only in their partner, but especially in themselves, and they were suffering because of this. After a long-term relationship, it became hard for them to deny the fact that they too had been responsible for the demise of the relationship, and this left them despairing.

Hope is not an option. We can’t get out of bed in the morning without it. But what happens when our source of hope – ourselves – dies? We need to find an alternative source of hope. However, we have visited every shopping mall without finding it. We have tried meditation, psychotherapy, and yoga, but find that we remain with our festering weaknesses and failures.

Here was my suggestion:

• We are not self-sufficient. Instead, we were made to seek our sufficiency in Another – One who will never fail us. There are times when my wife and I are fed-up with each other and with ourselves. Although we are exasperated, we have learned to turn to God and accept our inability to heal ourselves. We admit our failures and extend forgiveness. Miraculously, once we get our hands off our lives, God places His hand out and restores us.

I was so thrilled to see that others were listening and grasping the message – that God is our only true hope.