December 24, 2001
Fulfilling Hope
… The
hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
"O
Little Town of Bethlehem"
by Phillips Brooks, 1835-1893
Regardless of your religious or spiritual beliefs, hope
seems to be universal. I suppose
for people who have no faith or belief in a universal power or Divinity and live
in a world limited by their own existence, hope has no meaning for hope is
“desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment.” (1)
Hope is central to the holiday season.
The Lutheran composer, Phillips Brooks, wrote the Christmas hymn O
Little Town of Bethlehem and in the stanza above brings together hope and
its antonym fear in the town associated with the birth of Jesus.
You might argue that hope and fear may not be opposites, but he clearly
believes that they are and at this place in the world and at that time, they
came together. Around two thousand
years later, one could make a case that they are still coming together in that
same region.
The definition of hope includes two methods by which desire
can be fulfilled. The first is
expectation. In prior writings, I
have examined expectation versus intention: expectation being passive and
intention being proactive. The
second choice given in the definition for fulfilling desire is belief.
For most of us, belief is anything but passive.
I have many hopes for things to come next year.
Because these hopes are close to my heart and my soul, I want them to be
fulfilled. Thus, I will be relying
on my belief in the Divine and trusting my soul and its connection to the Divine
to fulfill the hopes I have during this special and sacred time of the year.
With respect, acceptance, and love,
Richard
©
Richard D. Olson and Awaken The Soul, 2001; Edited by Janice E. Olson