Almost two decades ago a book came out entitled Hope is Not a Strategy – The 6 Keys to Winning the Complex Sale by Rick Page. Having been a sales professional for the majority of my career, I would have to agree with Mr. Page – hope is not a strategy when it comes to closing a complex sale. When it comes to the ‘bigger picture’ of life, however, to who we are, why we are here, and what our purpose in life is – HOPE may be EVERYTHING!
Today, too many of our young people in America are struggling. Anxiety, depression, even loneliness are mental health issues that teachers and school psychologists are seeing in record numbers. Sadly, suicide is now the number two killer of adolescents in America, second only to automobile fatalities. Maybe this phenomenon also explains why over 1,200 students at Yale University signed up for a class in 2018 on of all things… “How to Find Happiness.”
Now, I may be an aging “baby boomer” but if I have learned one thing after spending almost 70 years on this planet it is this – nothing is permanent! Change is constant and in order to get through this thing called “life”, we need to be resilient! And, in order to be resilient, one needs to have HOPE! That’s right, HOPE – a never-ending mindset that reminds each of us that no matter how good or bad today might have been, no matter what we may be dealing with, tomorrow always holds the promise and the potential of being just a little bit better than today!
So, what am I talking about? I’m talking about living life with a “servant leader” attitude, a way of thinking, a belief system that says there is more to living this life than just what’s in it for me. When we realize that God put us here for a reason, that we are here to give, to serve, to love others; to be the very best stewards we can be in God’s world while we are here – we will never lose HOPE!
Our belief in God should make it clear that in the ‘bigger picture’ of life, we will never be the ones totally in control. This IS God’s world. We come into it with nothing and when we leave we will take nothing with us. There are no guarantees in most everything we endeavor in as human beings. We are human and because of that, we will fail. We are imperfect. We have shortcomings. We judge others. We make decisions based upon negative emotions like anger and hate. And yet, how strange but comforting it is to know that there is a God who loves us anyway, just the way we are. God is our HOPE.
So, each of us needs to do all we can while we are on this planet to make a positive difference. We need to find ways to be kind to others, to give, to serve, to love one another because when we do that – we become a vision of HOPE for all those we come in contact with. We literally become a living, breathing example of the HOPE that each of us needs to have. What could be better than that? Well, maybe one thing.
When we make the choice to live a life filled with HOPE, to always believe that tomorrow has that promise and potential to be better than today, we find something I call The Missing Peace – a certain PEACE we would otherwise NEVER find. To live in PEACE…could we ever ask for a greater blessing?
