Hope is wonderful when it comes to hoping it won’t rain. But if you’re hoping it won’t rain, aren’t you also worrying that it will?
Hope is not good to base your life around. “I hope my life improves.” Good. That’s cool. I hope your life improves, too. I’m not going to do anything about it. Are you?
Hope is what’s left when I’ve done all I think I can do, but I’ve got to DO before I choose to hope. I will pray the whole time I’m DOING what I think best. I will pray for guidance as I take one step after another; backtracking if need be, forging a new path when I must, following the footsteps of a great one’s path when I can.
Prayer is not hope. Hope is never an answer to a prayer. Hope by itself swirls in front of me like a warm cozy ball of promised, but unreceived love. It looks good, but love unreceived is wasted love.
Would God really answer a prayer with love I cannot feel? Would She say, “Keep hoping” as She decides on a whim if the answer is yes or no? Hardly. She already knows the answer, so I’d better damn well listen for guidance and not settle for a warm fuzzy hope.
If I’m only hoping, then I’ll only hope.
Quite a different opinion expressed in 1998’s post I Will Always Be Hopeful
