I have been struggling to write this piece about hope.   Why should hope be such a difficult subject for me? Could it be that I am hopeless?  I certainly hope not!

I’ll admit it is not a word I use often. I looked to Merriam Webster for help.  I found definitions for hope as an intransitive verb, a transitive verb and a noun – as in “Here’s hoping I don’t lose hope, I hope”.  Oh, now it’s clear!?!

Faith, Hope (n), and Charity – I get that.  Hope and Pray-I don’t get that.  I pray for God’s will to be done; I do not then hope He will do what I want.  Nor do I hope for something until I start losing hope, then I pray for it.

At this point, I have given up hope that I will compose something that will inspire hope in you.  I googled “hope quotes” and offer the following in the hope that one or more will bring you hope.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. – Robert Kennedy

No matter what sort of adversity or challenge you might face, you can always believe that, with hope, it can be conquered and, in the end, you will be stronger for it. – Brooke Ellison

The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. – Barbara Kingsolver

Hope is the bedrock of this nation. The belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be. – Barack Obama

Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless. – Gilbert K. Chesterton (I threw this one in for Mr. Webster)

And from the song Hope by David Lamotte:

I keep thinking I hear the four horsemen
And turning around to see
It’s just the pony express again
And they’ve got a message for me
I’ve got a lot of hope for the future
I’ve got a lot of faith things can work out fine
Got a lot of dreams for a better world
Got a lot of work to do if I’m going to make them mine

Here’s hoping we can all find something to be hopeful for and live into it, I hope.