What is the Point?

Have you ever felt despair that created a need to exclaim, "What is the point of this?"

• If you read the news, even occasionally, you probably did.
• If at some time in the past, you enjoyed people-watching, but have since given up the ghost on that one, you probably did.
• If you’ve gone grocery shopping, if you’ve driven to work, if you’ve got a job, and even if you just finished a holiday dinner with family, you probably did. 

We may see the question in only the most negative of viewpoints. I was told that we could spin this question, using it educationally to produce a positive way forward. Well, I needed to adjust my internal workings just to get my mind around that supposition. I’m not there yet.

Since I have read the news, I have gone shopping, and driven my car, I will admit to an overuse of the question almost to the point of considering it a mantra. Not the good kind.

As luck would have it, this is also the annual occasion of setting my “Word/Phrase of the Year”. Do you want the truth? I thought of using the subject line for this purpose. Whatever was I thinking?

I look to blame that positive spin idea. And, since I'm not buying the premise, it would be ridiculous to use this phrase. The "Word of the Year" spiritual practice is designed to improve my relationship with God. Furthermore, using a negative target would inhibit breakthroughs in human relationships as well.

I had less than a day to decide what this year’s think-of-this-every-day word/phrase will be. And it took the sit-down-and-write demand from my brain to come up with the answer. In all honesty, however, it was not my brain that coined the phrase.

Ready?

Hope Liberates. 

That’s going to be it, just two words. But those two words are the antithesis of the subject line. Hope has a whole library of guidance for those moments when things overwhelm and frustrate us. Hope and despair will not exist together. So, for the next 12 months, there will be an emphasis on the gift of hope as a subject for new articles. 

You can think of it like chicken. (Sorry for the whiplash.)

Once Upon a Chef says there are 50 BEST chicken recipes. Think about this. One "recipe" a week and I’ve completed a year of posts! But you’d never want to eat chicken again. This is probably where the analogy falls apart.

Just so you know, I heard your sigh of relief. But I hope (No pun - ah who am I kidding? It was intentional.) to write a couple of articles each month focusing on the ability of hope to bring more peace, forgiveness, and love into our lives. 

The first suggested thought, yes even before the New Year has begun, is a quote from Steven Charleston.

“Hope makes room for love in the world. We can all share it, we can all believe in it, even if we are radically different in every other way. We no longer need to fear our differences because we have common ground. We can hope together—therefore, hope liberates us. It frees us from our fear of the other.”

"In a land of deep darkness, a light has dawned." Isaiah 9:2

Oh. And if you make any of those 50 BEST, let me know.  I'll do the same!