When you hope for something you are looking forward to something with desire and reasonable confidence, or you feel whatever you are desiring will happen. Hmm… kind of like when you were a teenager and you hoped your parents would never find out you snuck out of the house. Or when your fuel light is on but the next gas station isn’t for 15 miles and you hope you will make it.

We’ve all had many of those moments throughout our lifetimes. Some of us might even have one everyday. The question is, Why? I mean, some of the situations we find ourselves hoping in could easily be avoided. After all, we are in control of our own actions. Like when you blew your budget on something cool like new clothes or concert tickets or a long weekend with friends. You might find yourself hoping your next deposit hits before the bills you paid do. Or when you hope there were no cops around to see you run that stop sign. In this sense, having hope is almost like searching for the reassurance that what we did (or didn’t do) wasn’t that bad, or is easily fixed or forgotten about.

There are also those situations where we are not in control at all. Like when you hope that cute guy asks you out or you hope your name is picked as the winner in the drawing for that new car. Those are the times when you are dependent on someone or something else to make your desire a reality. Those are also the moments when it would be really nice if wishing upon a star or the “I Dream of Genie” blink-quick-nod trick really worked.

What about the things we hope for when we are acting upon our anger, hurt, or frustration? When we hope something negative will happen to someone who did something mean, rude, unfair, or unjust to us?  Like the coworker that presented your idea as their own and ended up with the project you wanted. Or the driver that cut you off in traffic. Or the customer service person that was extremely unfriendly and not the least bit helpful. It’s a good thing that our thoughts don’t instantly become reality.

Aside from all of these is the kind of hope more and more people are in need of, especially as of late — the hope for a better tomorrow. This is the hope that is born out of desperation. This is the hope that comes when you have done all you can do and there is nothing left but to hope. This is the hope that people pray for in their darkest hour. Such as the hope that a loved one will make it through a risky surgery when they were barely clinging to life before they went in. The hope that comes when jobs are lost and scarce, money is long past gone, and pink notices are steady coming. The hope that your loved one serving in the armed forces, stationed in a dangerous area, will make it home safely.

This is the hope that people cling to more than any other in order to make it hour by hour, day by day, and sometimes even minute by minute. It’s what helps them get out of bed in the morning and put one foot in front of the other. It is amazing that when times are the hardest people have the most hope. They look for that hope everywhere and in everything. They take the tiniest of victories and the smallest of blessings as a sign that their hope is not in vain. I guess it is true what they say, hope really does spring eternal.

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(Original photo by Jan Tik, used under Creative Commons license.)