Hope

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the word “hope”.  Hope, in a biblical sense, seems to be the middle child to Faith and Charity - often forgotten; but ever so crucial to each of us.

I’m not a psychologist, but as I try to wrap my mind around how or why a person could get to a point in their thinking that shedding blood (their own and/or someone else’s) seems to be an option, I wonder if it’s because they have lost hope for their situation - whatever that situation is.

When someone is hopeless, they feel like they no longer have any choices.  Nothing is in their control, they are powerless over their own lives.

This is not limited to those in poverty, not limited to those whose outward appearance seems to indicate that they have little to hope for.  We all, I think, can find ourselves in some level of despair resulting from seemingly unending and difficult life circumstances.  Sometimes these are a result of a lifetime of poor or uninformed decision making.  Sometimes it’s a matter of bad luck - things just don’t seem to go our way.  Sometimes a combination of the two, I suppose.

But, I’m convinced that most of us who have lived a few years have experienced periods of despair; hopelessness.

I have experienced this.  It was brutal, and not for a short period of time.  But I was fortunate to have loving people around me, I am generally an optimist, have the benefit of possessing an otherwise stable mental health, and exercised faith in God, and practiced charity toward those around me as best I could.

These things got me through my despair and period without hope.

Not everyone has in their lives what I had/have.  Not everyone has the tools I had when I needed some stabilizing forces in my life until I could regain some hopeful footing.

I encourage those who read this to consider this before judging others.  Certainly, there is no excusing the shedding of innocent blood.  However, if we take the time to consider the importance of hope, look at those around us who may not have any hope, and seek to be charitable toward them (not necessarily with resources, but with real, person-to-person support and empathy), perhaps we can help folks take a few steps back from the precipice of hopelessness, and get them to a better place.

If we’re honest, we’ve all been there.  Some of us had/have the tools and support to get us through despair and hopelessness.  Some do not.  Let’s offer tools to those who do not, and perhaps help head off tragedy.