Hope

You know, one of the most amazing things about human beings is HOPE.  The fact that almost anything can be endured, that almost anything becomes bearable, if there is some sort of hope around – either associated with some enterprise, or somewhere someplace in one’s life.  The beauty of hope is that it does not need to be reasonable – it can be hope from the most unlikely source, it can be the most irrational hope imaginable – yet it will still do the job – set the light to life so that life is now that to be loved, rather than that to be exhausted, even extinguished.  Hope diverts the eyes, to that which is good in one’s mind, away from the totality of horror that constitutes our lives here on earth.

 

I was reading an article in The New Yorker recently about mega-churches, seeker churches, in the USA, and one of the main points they made was that these churches are all about giving hope, here on earth, to those whose lives are in transition.  A new message, different from the established churches, in many ways, and one of the reasons for the phenomenal growth of these new churches.

 

I was reading a play recently written (not yet published), and it said:

“Exactly!  People have to go on living.  There is a new world now.  A new way of living.  I fear that Reshel knows that better than we do.”

“Who is Reshel?”

“You know him.  He’s gaining influence.  He’s been through other places, working his way around … he knows, Alor.”

“Know what?  What is there to know, now?”

“He knows that people need hope.”

“What hope could he bring?”

“False hope, then.  Perhaps he thinks he can control people.”