Hope Springs Eternal

The really good thing about writing essays these days is the easy access to information. Back in the olden days, you had to go to the library and do the research. Literally you had to go through the card catalog, look up a phrase or word that led you to certain books or articles then pull down the books or periodicals; read what was written about a particular subject, then draft your opinion about what you learned. I used to do that 30 years ago, but since the computer and Google have been so refined everything is now just a search bar away. Imagine all that time it took to get dressed, drive to the library, collect the books and articles… all that has all been reduced to turning on your computer, open up a search bar and the entire world of knowledge is right at your fingertip. Amazing! You can even do this on the smartphone that you carry in your pocket! Go figure!

So, true DAT! I typed this phrase in my search bar and now I am intelligent because I can share what I learned instantaneously. This phrase is shortened from “hope springs eternal in the human breast,” a quote from An Essay on Man, 1734 by Alexander Pope. Essentially it is the feeling of hopefulness endlessly renewing itself. That means that while there is still life there is still hope. The article is quite extensive and quite interesting because it also mentions God and ethics. From the article, I copied this phrase. “Pope’s Essay on Man and Moral Epistles were designed to be the parts of a system of ethics which he wanted to express in poetry.” So it is from this brief summary I want to write about what my spirit woke me up this early am to speak about.

Just that one phrase was what I was feeling; as long as you are alive there is hope. There is the possibility of something happening to turn things for the better so we must keep hope alive always until we have no more life in us. I was also curious how Mr. Pope was a religious man who believed in the superiority of God and man’s position under God’s authority. The article mentions the Great Chain of Being. “Because man cannot know God’s purposes, he cannot complain about his position in the Great Chain of Being.” That would be a hierarchical structure of all matter and life, thought in medieval Christianity to have been decreed by God. The chain starts with God and progresses downward to angels, humans, animals, plants, and minerals. This is where I jump off the train because I do not wish to write about Alexander Pope, but about hope and God.

What is hope? One definition is hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world around us. I often speak about faith, which has a somewhat, similar definition. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. Now it is all coming together for me why this title woke me up.

We are really experiencing very troubling times and people are afraid not knowing what will happen or if they will actually live through these events of time. People are dying daily at an ever-increasing number and still, we do not see where this ends. Without faith and hope it would be easy to curl up into a corner and allow the hands of fate engulf you. That means giving up and allowing death to overshadow you. So, as long as there is the breath of life in us we should never give up. Keep the faith and trust in God’s superiority. However, if your faith is not attached to anything then blind faith is like playing Russian roulette. You spin the cylinder and pull the trigger and “bang!” Or not! Your hope would be based solely upon luck and that means… do you feel lucky? Without God, there is no faith but without faith, there is no God so what is it going to be for you? Is life all about a game of chance to you? Perhaps it takes the threat of death to bring us to this point of deciding what we place our most essential values upon? Is life just about the luck of the draw for you or, it is attached to some sort of divine purpose?

This takes me back to this natural order of God. Since man cannot know God’s purposes, he cannot complain about his position in God’s chain of hierarchy. Therefore he must accept that whatever IS, is RIGHT. Ultimately, whatever happens, is what God allowed to happen and God’s divine will narrate the slate of all existence. It would be foolish of us to try to somehow get around God’s will because we can’t. We are currently on this spinning wheel of life turning wherever it goes and we really don’t control the spin of the wheel. God DOES!

But, if you do not believe in God then you are playing a game of chance with life itself. The alternative is to find a way to learn more about God and instead of merely acknowledging that you are on this spinning wheel that is being controlled by the will of God, you also stand in agreement with the one who is responsible for the wheel spinning around. You accept the fact that your fate is in the hands of the ONE who knows where the wheel will spin and you also accept that this ONE will look out for your best behalf because you join your will-power with HIS ULTIMATE POWER. From that point, you must let the cards fall where they may, and that is the “whatever IS.” God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Our hope is no longer based upon the luck of the draw but our faith and hope is tucked neatly into the arms of God and in God, we place our faith, our trust, our life, our body, our mind, and our soul. For me, that is the phrase Hope Springs Eternal. Further, it is through our faith and hope that we are lead into eternal life with God. That is the promise of God Himself.

So this is why my Spirit woke me up this morning to write this essay. Thanks to Google I appear to be smarter than I actually am but thanks to the Holy Spirit He taught me how to use such resources. I have placed my hope and my faith in Almighty God so no matter what happens next I know that I am personally in the hands of God and it matters not where this spinning wheel might turn. If I live it will be with God and even if I die it will be with God so for me, either way, I win. I might be uneasy because of the suffering all around us including all my family and friends but the best things I can share with them are also to have faith and hope in God. We might be frightened but not like unbelievers who are simply counting on the luck of the draw. They wonder if the bullet is in the next chamber when they pull the trigger and that is scary.

Hope springs eternal for us all as long as we still have the breath of life in our mortal bodies. It is God that keeps the doors open long enough for His souls to come home to Him one way or another. He would like for them to place their hope, faith, and trust in Him but you can only lead a horse to the water. Where do you attach your hope? Find someone who is willing to share with you what they know about God and your hope will increase exponentially. This is a promise from God. Selah!