Hope Vs. Faith

[acbshada]

I was sitting here thinking you need to write something.  You haven't written in ages, and nothing you've said has really been worth reading...so sit down, think of something thought-provoking and write it, darn it all!

When we think things like this...why are we always later amazed that we weren't able to come up with anything to write about?  What

Comments

[pgwfolc]

For me, the two words are inextricably linked... due to a well-promoted but relatively short-lived sitcom by that name.

Thinking about it more seriously, though, I think it's like this:

Hope is faith in the future.

When you talk about faith, it's usually about your religion. But that's not always the case. Even an atheist can have faith in some things - the good of humanity, the strength of certain moral principles, a system of governance, scientific achievement, the enduring failure of the Chicago Cubs, etc. It's a deeply-held belief in something that can't be proven.

Hope is the belief that the future holds something good. That the possibility for a favorable outcome exists. It's a measure of faith in that possibility.

Except that, as I'm putting it into words, I'm realizing there's more to it. Because hope is not absolute. There are degrees of faith, of course - it's not always unshakable. But hope implies doubt. There's a chance for a positive result, but only a chance. Which means there's a chance for a negative result - which is, in fact, what fuels the need for hope.

Because hope isn't just a matter of belief. It's also a matter of desire. There's a chance - perhaps good, perhaps slim - that things will turn out a certain way... and hope is about wanting them to go that way.

You believe it can happen, and you want it to happen... but you're not sure it will. That's hope.

But if you're looking at the future through the eyes of religious faith - the belief that God has a plan and it will work out for the best, for example - then you're not hoping that there will be good in the future. You're trusting and believing that there is.

Hope coexists with doubt. They're two sides of the same coin. You can't have one without some measure of the other, however slim.

Faith and doubt are like fire and water - natural enemies. Doubt eats away at faith, and faith tries to overcome doubt. Each seeks to conquer the other.