Clouding my mind,
Dragging me down,
Farther
---------Farther
-------------------Farther
until
it closes completely
around my heart
sealing off all
light and
I lose
hope.
One of the worst things a person can do in this life is to lose hope. As Dieter F. Uchdorf said, “Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity. These three stabilize our lives regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces we might encounter at the time (1).” Proverbs teaches us that, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick(2).” Without hope, we lose the will to fight for our salvation against evil and temptations.
Hope is “an anchor to our souls (3).” I have two very good friends, named Matt and Jacob, who are facing very similar trials in their lives right now. They have both made some very bad decisions recently and, as a result, fallen away from the church and virtually disowned by their families. They are both moving away from home in an attempt to start over. Away from nearly every soul they’ve ever known, they are each very much alone. There is one major difference in their situations, however. Matt has completely lost hope in ever making it back into God’s good graces. He thinks that he has gone “too far” and “isn’t even sure [he wants] to go back.” Because of this key factor, I doubt very much that he will ever repent and make it back to a good position in his life. Jacob, on the other hand, still has that bright, shining beacon of hope that he looks to for inspiration. He truly believes that if he works hard enough, he can make it back to our Lord and Savior. Right now I have no idea how he’s going to do it, but I am certain that someday Jacob will return to his former standing with God. It’s this hope that makes the difference in their lives. “Man must hope, or he cannot receive an inheritance in [Heaven] (4).”
How, then, are we to gain hope? As always, we must turn to the scriptures for the answer. Alma the Younger led a very wild life as a youth. One day, however, he was visited by an angel and as a result, he remembered all his sins and his soul “was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all [his] sins (5).” For three days and nights he “was racked, even with the pains of a damned soul (6).” But at one point during his despair, he remembered the prophesies of Jesus Christ and the Atonement. He had faith in Christ, which gave him hope. Thus, he was able to repent and have joy. Moroni teaches that “hope cometh of faith (7).” We must have faith in Jesus Christ and his ability to redeem us from our sins if we are to have any hope for the redemption of our souls.
Hope is what will get us through this life to the joys of eternal life. Without hope, we cannot expect to perform well in this life. The evidence of this statement is all around us. What happens to those who find no reasons to hope? They turn to drugs, immorality, and a slew of other destructive things. You will never find a drug addict- if he lives long enough to have tasted the fruit of his decisions and is sober- who will say, “Drugs have made my life better.” It is more likely that they will say, “I would never have started. It has not made my life better like I thought it would, but I had nothing to hope for.” I have many friends who turned to drugs or immorality when they could find nothing to hope for in life, and all of them have made some variation on this statement. The loss of hope does terrible things to a person both physically and spiritually.
This is not to say that hope will save us from all of our immediate problems and trials. Those are a part of learning and growing through life. But through hope, “we will be rescued from everlasting death (8)!” If you continue through your trials with “a perfect brightness of hope” and “endure to the end…Ye shall have eternal life (9).” I know that if we have hope in Jesus Christ and, in so doing, follow his commandments, we will find happiness in the arms of our Father at the last day.
"Looking to the light of hope from the darkness of despair"
(1) Dieter F. Uchdorf- The Infinite Power of Hope
LDS.org
(2) Proverbs 13:12
(3) Dieter F. Uchdorf- The Infinite Power of Hope
LDS.org
(4) Ether 12:32
(5) Alma 36:12
(6) Alma 36:16
(7) Ether 12:4
(8) Neal A. Maxwell- Hope Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ
LDS.org
(9) 2 Nephi 31:20
7 comments:
hope is just like sugar in the tea
nice article
Michelle,
I like your message? Where did the poem at the beginning and the quote at the end come from?
I enjoyed the comparison that you made between your two friends. It is amazing how hope can make all the difference in our feelings of self worth. Thanks for your message!
Michelle, thank you for your testimony! I especially liked the quote from Elder Uchtdorf that you used in the beginning. Hope provides balance in our lives.
Michelle-
Hope is such an important thing to have and i have also known people that have lost hope and gone in wrong directions. I hope that your friends find their own hope. Thank you for sharing your blog insights.
Michelle,
What a great essay! I loved the quote by President Uchdorf - I had never heard that before and it makes such beautiful, visual sense. It was very touching to me. You write very well, and your quotes, scriptures, and personal experiences really serve to strengthen the point you are making. I believe all of us could do with more hope.
Thank, guys!
Amanda, I wrote the poem at the beginning, and the quote at the end is actually just a reflection upon the picture.
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