Virtue #5 Hope Springs Eternal

Where does the ability to hope come from? Is it just another form of optimism, and some of us are born optimists and some are diehard pessimists? Is hope just a matter of "some of us have it, and some of us don't"? I don't think so.

"Hope," says Wikipedia.org (I never quite trust the entries on this "anyone-can-write-it" online encyclopedia, but it provides a good beginning for research) "is believing that a positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary."

Sometimes hope is renewed when someone simply does a kind deed. While human beings are full of failure and are capable of committing heinous acts against each other, when a stranger returns your billfold intact or helps you while stranded on the highway, we say "they renewed our faith in humanity." Reading or hearing about these kind acts makes almost everyone feel good.

Cancer is a scary disease. Thousands of new cases develop each year and people often feel it is an automatic death sentence. Yet I personally know people who have survived five, 35, 40 years and died of other causes. My grandmother had breast cancer in her late 50s (this would have been in the late 1950s) and had a radical mastectomy. I think she also had some minimal radiation treatment that was prescribed at the time. Yet she lived to be 92 and died from gradual deterioration after breaking her hip.

A co-worker had a breast removed 30 years ago and she is still going strong. Certainly those who are coping with cancer, yet maintain hope, fit the definition of "believing a positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary." I'm told hope can even help increase the odds of healing, but of course it is no guarantee.

Faith and hope are closely intertwined. In the "Hebrews" book of the Bible, a classic verse is, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). A newer version of the Bible translates the original language to say "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

Hope doesn't mean that everything always turns out just fine. It is keeping on despite the circumstances.

The true story of Fred Davis (no relation) was told in Guideposts a couple of years ago, and my office also told it in a TV documentary about family survivors of suicide, Fierce Goodbye: Living in the Shadow of Suicide (rebroadcasting on ABC affiliates in the U.S. Jan. 8 through Feb.) He was a North Carolina state trooper when his teenage daughter took his service revolver and shot herself in the throes of a teenage romance gone awry. He struggled with all loss of hopeand almost loss of faith. Where was God? Why hadn't he and his wife picked up on clues? As a Christian, his biggest question, though, was where was her soul after death? Had suicide condemned her spirit for eternity?

Through a chance highway encounter with some other teenagers, he found answers to his questions. He began to believe that as depressed as she was, she certainly rationally did not decide to end her life and that as a Christian, he would see her again in heaven one day. He began rebuilding his life to reach out to troubled teens through an organization that sponsors a hotline for youth contemplating suicide, and another one for parents. You can read more of his story at www.fiercegoodbye.com/?P=37 or find his organization's website at http://www.teachhotline.org/ . His story gives me personal hope: in spite of going through the darkest valley of the deaththe suicide of a childhe is trying to make the best of it and prevent it from happening to other teens and families.

So, no matter how bleak it looks, hang on to whatever hope you can grab. It's a human emotion that helps us persevere through the darkest times. If we believe that humans are made in the image of God, then hope is also a divine gift that we can aspire to grasp and claim more fully.

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Contributed by Melodie Davis: MelodieD@MennoMedia.org Melodie is the author of eight books and writes a syndicated newspaper column, Another Way