Hope and Hopelessness
By Duane Hewitt
If there are things in this life that are worth dying for, then there must be equally great things worth living for. The most critical time in any battle is not when one feels spent and exhausted, but when that same person no longer cares and has become indifferent.
And so we have before us hope and hopelessness: Two idiosyncratic views and bedfellows that sail blithely along in human hearts and affairs. One opens doors to life, passion, and the future, and the other at its catastrophic best slams doors shut with the worst of all possible states of mind.
It is promise, courage, optimism, faith – and even love – versus bleak futility, impossibility, desperateness, purposelessness, and indifference.
And no matter if, when, or how any degree of hopelessness has entered your life, be it through this damned pandemic, or other brutally tough struggles like job loss, death, disease, the break-up of your family, or any other kind of hit and downward spiral that feels like the end of your life and future, you are encouraged here to do what you must do to find hope.
“When things go wrong, don’t go with them.” Elvis Presley
We’re all witnessing a plethora of problems that assail us seemingly endlessly. And didn’t we already have enough before Covid-19 showed up? All the afflictions of just being human in a terribly flawed world have given us crime, injustice, violence and too many societal woes. There are the seemingly endless despairs we suffer with death and disease. Then there are things so beyond us and too difficult to contend with, like floods and wildfires, like drugs and addiction, like homelessness, like suicide.
“The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die.” Juliette Lewis
But surely all is not lost. So what do we do? How do we find hope and help instill others with hope?
The topic is admittedly much larger than can be dealt with in a single article such as this. After all, there are those who suffer chronic depression, anxiety, and mental illness; factors that impact any feelings of hope.
“Even in the grave, all is not lost.” Edgar Allan Poe
We must find it within ourselves, with whatever resources are available to us, to reenergize and find the strength and courage we need to forge onward with newly rekindled hope. Find faith if you think it’s fallen to the hindmost. God would not have made this world with all her beauty if it was simply going to collapse. He won’t let it happen. And it’s more than possible that He needs our help to forge through all this.
Take up a new interest or rekindle some old ones. Have you tried online games lately? Find a free app or play online. What about taking up a musical instrument? Learn the flute or piano or guitar or start singing again. What about getting out there and helping others in a manner that touches you? Or how about this, get a box of crayons or coloring pencils and get creative.
“Indifference, not raw nerves and exhaustion, will be our downfall.” Duane Hewitt
We need hope and we need one another. Seek out the resources you need and find that inner place within you that helps you to push on and believe in a better future. Hang in there, and please, let’s not give up.
Brain Center TMS – Am I Depressed? Take a Depression Test
Copyright 2020 Duane Hewitt
