HOPE: a matter of life or death
Photo Credit Matt Payne: https://www.viewbug.com/member/mattpayne
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Have you ever looked to the sky in desperation, pleading, for help?
It seems, to me, impossible to go through life, and not have done so, more than once.
And, who, would you say, we've appealed to?
Most on the earth would say God, as would I.
Thus, those of us who believe in God carry hope in our hearts that, with God, our dreams can come true, and our prayers will be answered.
Even in the face of extensive, and unspeakable evil on the planet, we have hope Good will ultimately win against evil.
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("Good Bye", incidentally, is a condensed version of "God Be with Ye")
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For those who don't believe in God, I'm curious to know who you pray to in times of desperation, and from whence you derive your hope.
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In a famous study done with rats
(https://www.shawnmaust.com/2016/12/swimming-rats-power-hope/)
the power of hope was demonstrated when the rats experienced the researchers pulling them out of the water, then putting them back in. For the rats in that situation, the researchers generated hope in the rats with the possibility of being pulled out - thus giving the rats the strength and courage to swim vast amounts of time longer than they would have otherwise.
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How people have survived
the dungeons of hell - what they held onto that gave them hope to carry on through demeaning, and grotesque torture, is phenomenal to me.
And how folks live "regular lives" without hope, day after day, losing the desire to exist, a drop at a time, is heart wrenching to me.
It is my hope, and prayer, that whatever each of us believes about God, and about hope, and about better days for humanity, (read: life free from evil), that we can join hands - join hearts - to help herald in the beauty, wonder, playfulness and freedom that is our birthright.