HOPE IS SO DIFFERENT THAN FAITH

Hope is by definition to want or expect something; to wish, i.e. I hope tomorrow will be better than today.  Faith by definition is to hold true to a set of strong beliefs, trust in something or someone, i.e "in God we trust."  Combined, both of these verbs propel us in one direction  or another.  When do we generally place them into action?  It's usually during a time of despair, when we can't see the forest for the trees, when the path away from that feeling is eroding and is harder to reach than what the minds eye is capable of recognizing.  In religious terms, faith is the evidence of things hoped for but not seen.  Yet, hope is wanting something to be true so badly that we refuse to open our minds to the possibility that it just might not come to fruition.  In that, lies the dychotomy of our decision making process.

Some days are overflowing with so much of both, then others are filled with emptiness and neither can be found.  Then we find ourselves at that crossroads.  It is said when you do not make a decision for yourself, a decision is being made for you.  Isn't it better to be part of a decision that you control more than someone else making a decision that might evoke something onto you that you do not like at all?  I once saw a movie that said it best, there is no winning, just different degrees of loosing.  This is so true when hope and faith has long removed itself in a relationship and there is not really anything left to look forward to anymore.  You find yourself just standing there; staring upward and around trying to sort it all out.  At that point, we either become complacent and start blaming others for our current state or we become victors in the claim of what we want for the rest of our lives.  Remember, no one man is an island, but know you are not alone unless you choose that for yourself.

In all  relationships, we hope that we will live happily ever after; the fairy tales that many women grow up believing (with all due respect).  And there is the faith that if I enter into this relationship, I can make it work-moreover the belief that men grow up with; knowing life is not a fairy tale.  When adversity grapples us and flings us into the undesirable abyss of our disturbing co-existence with one another, we utilize both faith and hope that things will improve... and at first they do.  The road ahead offers unyielding bumps, twist and turns, steep hills and downward bluffs.  Learning to realize what lessons to employ from the past experience, becomes a great assistant to manifest a desired result.  They (whomever "they" are) say it is not what happens to us that makes the difference, it's in fact the way we react or allow it to affect us that will determine our own success.

I have faith for what my life holds as it unfolds through adversity.  I hope I am right because hope is so different than faith.