Hope. A word so small with such strength and power. I recently questioned and doubted this little word and began to chalk it up to nothing more than wishful thinking. Did it actually make a difference to hope for the best? What use is it really?

Life had become a little disheveled and things weren’t going ‘my way’ or happening on my terms. And that is hard for me. I’ve always been a person who changed every situation that didn’t feel good to me. I’d quit the job, move to a new city, go back for a second chance, switch careers – I had control. So when it comes to the part of not being able to change the situation, when it is out of my control, and I know that I’m supposed to change my attitude about it – that’s the struggle. I stumble hard. How do I deal? How can I just continue to hope when seeing no real progress? What’s the point?

I was on the verge of giving up on this “wishful thinking” and so I did what every millennial does when they need to dig deep about something, I googled – “what is the meaning of hope?” And to my rescue came a quote from a Christian apologist and poet, C.S. Lewis. He revealed:

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those that thought the most of the next.

I know this quote goes deeper than what we typically think about on a day to day basis – but it felt comforting. To know that hope can be an invaluable virtue to attain. To know that hope can get us through to the next moment and that that moment might just be better than what you initially expected. And just maybe if we allow things to unfold in the way they are meant to instead of the way we believe they should, we just might be okay.

And so, I’ve realigned my thoughts with hope and come to realize that some things that are outside my control can be transcendental. If I plan and HOPE for the best even if my way isn’t the final destination, HOPEfully in the process of patience and perseverance some form of beauty is born in the wake of my pain.

“It can be vulnerable to allow ourselves to fully feel a yearning for something we can’t guarantee having, but the yearning holds magic and it’s part of our medicine.”  -Nisha Moodley