After a frenetic week of hysterical meteorological predictions for a Category Three hurricane, the first of the dreaded raindrops began. The police sent out patrol cars stop house by house and encourage people to leave. One good old boy greeted the officer with sanguine optimism. “Mais, no. Ah grew up here. Mah daddy grew up here. His daddy grew up here. Dah Lord’s gonna take care o’ me. I done ax Him.” Nothing the officer could say would dissuade him.

As torrential rains fell, the bayous began to rise and lap at the steps of people’s homes. Police patrols in boats went around collecting the previously reluctant and assisting them to shelter. Once again, the insistent good old boy maintained that he was going to stay put and that God was going to save him.

The water levels grew higher and higher, so before long, the persistent hold-out had taken to his roof to wait. At this point, a rescue helicopter came around, throwing down a rope ladder and bull-horning to him to climb up. He shook his head and insisted that God would save him, thank you very much.

Sadly, the man succumbed to the forces of nature and found himself in Heaven. He gazed reproachfully at God and ask why He had not saved him. God levelly returned his gaze and said, “I sent a patrol car, a boat, and a helicopter. What more did you want?”

In the Bible “hope” is called “the anchor of the soul” – a far more powerful concept than the wishy washy “hope” we tend to use in our culture these days. I understand what you mean, I think, but still, I’d maybe focus a little more on that anchor, y’know?

Cheers, and a tip o’ the hat to ya!

Same thing, slightly different definitions of the word.

I think you can use hope as a springboard to better action. Hope standing alone is not a plan for action. However, hope along with your plan makes it more powerful.

wikipedia said it best for me:
Hope was personified in Greek mythology as Elpis. When Pandora opened Pandora’s Box, she let out all the evils except one: hope. Apparently, the Greeks considered hope to be as dangerous as all the world’s evils. But without hope to accompany all their troubles, humanity was filled with despair. It was a great relief when Pandora revisited her box and let out hope as well. It may be worthy to note that in the story, hope is represented as weakly leaving the box but is in effect far more potent than any of the major evils. In some faiths and religions of the world, hope plays a very important role. Hope can be passive in the sense of a wish, or active as a plan or idea, often against popular belief, with persistent, personal action to execute the plan or prove the idea. Consider a prisoner of war who never gives up hope for escape and, against the odds, plans and accomplishes this. By contrast, consider another prisoner who simply wishes or prays for freedom, but without genuine hope, or another who gives up all hope of freedom

@debworks

I can relate to everything that you are going through right now. I too have many things started or wanting to start but never enough time to complete them. Having worked with you through email and over the phone in the past, I am certain that you will figure this out and get back on track. I am looking forward to reading your future posts, as I am sure to learn things that will help me as well.

Phil