Hope is a prerequisite for Life

My son just finished reading "Night" by Elie Wiesel in his honors English class.  I read it a few years ago and was moved by it that I remember laying on the coach and sobbing.  A mixture of emotions coursed through my mind, heart and soul:  guilt, grief, anger, sadness, and hope.

As we drove home from our latest trip to piano lessons and weekly family dinner, an hour away, we had time to process some of Noah's thoughts about the book.  First of all I found out that he doesn't like books that have pain and struggle in them.  He is very compassionate but I think it weighs him down. . . maybe he's like his mother in that respect and FEELS very deeply for others who are in pain.  He would rather read Tolkien or Ridley Pearson instead.  He's a sunny kind of guy, no brooding for him, no dwelling in the sadness of life for this ray of sunshine!  So the subject of hope came up. . .

Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings. --Elie Wiesel


Without hope there can be no life, at least anything that resembles life.  If we give up completely, if we lack a basic hope in today, let alone tomorrow, then we are left with the emptiness of despair.  Despair debilitates.  Despair robs us of life.  But hope gives us courage in the face of struggle, courage to do the thing that can be so difficult--- courage to LIVE.  


^{Romans 5: 1} Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness!  Hope in Christ is what keeps me alive!  Hope in the promises of God is what keeps this sinner from falling into the darkness of despair.  Hope walks with me like a loving companion, encouraging me to live for today, urging me to make good use of my life, reminding me that I am a child of God named "Amy" and that there is a plan for me that God is laying out before me one step at a time.  Hope calls me to help others, to comfort them in their grief so that they might have hope as well.  Hope lifts me and supports me even while my character is being refined, shaped, whittled, and sculpted by all that is "life."  


Hope is prerequisite for life.  
Without hope we cannot really live.  
Without hope we would all die of a broken heart.