FRIDAY—TACKLE SOMETHING DIFFICULT WITH HOPE

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)

Think of a difficult situation in your life right now. Are you looking at it through “glasses” made of fear or of hope? Do you have a sense all is, or will be, as it should be? Do you believe that even if something unpleasant has happened as a result of someone else’s free will run amok, good can come of it?

Sometimes people who say, “Everything happens for a reason,” passively wait for the world to come to them. Believing things happen for a reason does not mean we can sit back and do nothing. We must try to be conscious of what is going on, fulfill our responsibilities, and play our part. If you don’t know what to do, then say to yourself, “I don’t know what the best thing is to do, but I will have faith, do the right thing, be loving, kind, compassionate, hopeful and see what unfolds”.

Pick one of the most difficult life challenges you have right now. Revise your thinking about it. No matter how hopeless it seems, work with your will and use faith and hope in the person or the scenario to instill yourself with the courage you need to do something (like work on forgiveness or make plans to talk to them or find a way to love them fully or accept them).

If there really is nothing you can do, accept the situation and look at it with hope-filled eyes and heart, knowing that spiritual wisdom is at work and can change anything—in an instant. Pray. You may do nothing different except change your thoughts or feelings, and everything might change!

Hold hope that you will be guided with inspiration to know what to do, even if you don’t know now. Hope-fully expect that insight and clarity will come to you or the right people will appear or the right situation will emerge. Your job is to be watchful and listen carefully for that inspiration and trust in the wisdom given to you.

Be conscious of which thoughts control you. If you are uncertain about what will happen—find hope—and expect that good will come of it. When it does, it may not look like “good” to you, but with the benefit of hindsight, you might see it turned out much better than you imagined!

Remember, “hope springs eternal,” as Alexander Pope wrote in 1733. It can keep us going, motivated and persisting when others give up.

The heart is an alchemical vessel in which hope is used to transmute everything difficult into something beneficial. Put all your problems in the heart, fill it with the philosopher’s stone of hope, and see what emerges. (The philosopher’s stone was the secret, magical ingredient used by alchemists to transmute base metals into gold.)

I never give up. Never. It drives my husband crazy! Hope gives me the energy to have persistence, resilience and optimism. And sometimes that persistence takes the form of patience—but not very often! I have to work on that one.

I do try, however, to make sure that what I am striving for is also what I believe to be God’s will and not just me forging on until have my own way. If I can’t actually do anything, then I wait for inspiration to come for the next step. I know there is always a next step! I just wait in hope, not in despair.

After all, what human knows what will happen—this is the realm of alchemy and miracles!

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