The Voice of Hope 1
Hope is always there, just listen for it!
Many people today have given up on their hopes and dreams. They have stopped believing in themselves and have waited for years to have someone tell them that their situation is not hopeless. The good news is there is hope for them. When we’re down and discouraged just a friendly, encouraging word helps us get through our tough times. When someone gives us hope it can be just the right words we need to hear. We all want to hear encouraging words (verbal life preserver) in the midst of life’s storms. When we’re going through a divorce or separated from our spouse, the pain we go through is unbearable at times. We hope that the pain will go away. Fortunately, it does eventually. The sleepless nights, the weeping, the sad thoughts of failure ease over time. The one thing I have noticed in most people is the hope that people hang on to. Hope is something we anticipate or long for. As children we hoped for many things; in marriage we hope for a bright future with our loved one; in our careers, we hope for promotions and pay raises.
The brokenness I see in my office from clients waiting for just one word of hope or encouragement would amaze you. I can think of many who want to hear a doctor give them hope for a cure or a surgery that would resolve their health problem. The parent who hopes that they will hear from a wayward child or the spouse whose partner has left them hopes that they will soon return home. Those who are looking for work to support encouragement, themselves or their families hope to find a job. There are many who live on hope just to keep them going!
I remember meeting a woman with brain cancer who was told she had a few months to live. She was desperate to live and hoped they would find a cure for her cancer. She went from doctor to doctor just hoping someone would give her the right advice so she could be cured. She contacted several doctors and people who cured cancer with food and exercise. She even went as far as Chinese medicine for help. Sad to say she passed away a few months later. So, the million dollar question is – what is hope? Where can I find hope? Is there hope for me? I hear a lot of people who want hope in their lives and are searching for it.
Hope is the state which promotes the belief in good outcomes related to events and circumstances in one’s life. Despair is often regarded as the opposite of hope.[1] Hope is the “feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best” or the act of “look[ing] forward to something with desire and reasonable confidence” or “feel[ing] that something desired may happen”.[2] Other definitions are “to cherish a desire with anticipation”; “to desire with expectation of obtainment”; or “to expect with confidence”.[3] In the English language the word can be used as either a noun or a verb, although hope as a concept has a similar meaning in either use.
Is there something you are hoping for today? You can’t take your mind off of it and you pray and wish for it. I think each one of us today honestly have something we are hoping for. Hoping to restore your marriage or relationship with a family member is on many hearts. Have you ever been in a survival situation and hoped to be rescued? Some of us can say yes, that has happened. Hope can produce in us how to be resilient, a survivalist, tenacious, and a fighter if we need to be. I want to share my story of hope in a life and death situation. I use this story to let people know there is hope even in life and death struggles.
I was scared, worried, frightened, fearful, and yet through it all I still had hope for surviving and learning that giving up would have been the end for me and others. In the following articles you will find out how hope played out in my near death experience. Many would have just given up and died never knowing how hope could have saved them. Next week I’ll share my story, “Lost In A Blizzard.”
“The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination.”
? Marion Zimmer Bradley
Do you have a situation in the home where you have lost your hope and need to learn how to find it again? Do you feel hopeless and are afraid of what tomorrow brings? Are you afraid to hope again after a personal loss? What scares you about hoping for things? If you answered yes to any of these question Dr. Mike can help you find answers to finding peace in your life. Call him at 303.456.0555
Dr. Michael Brooks is the founder of Applicable Life Coaching and Counseling Services. His services are affordable, accessible, anonymous and available by appointment from the privacy of your own home. To avoid travel time and the comfort of home, many clients prefer to meet with Dr. Mike over the phone or via Skype. The convenience of this type of coaching is the most effective means of Life Coaching and counseling for those who live out of the Denver-metro area. Give Dr. Mike a call! You’ll be glad you did!