Rabbi Hugo Grynn, was sent to Auschwitz as a little boy. In the midst of the concentration camp, in the midst of the death and horror all around them, many Jews held onto whatever shreds of their religious observances they could, without drawing the ire of the guards. One cold winter’s evening, Hugo’s father gathered the family in the barracks. It was the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish Feast of Lights.The young child watched in horror as his father took the family’s last pad of butter and made a makeshift candle, using a string from his ragged clothes. He then took a match and lit the candle. “Father, no!” Hugo cried. “That butter is our last bit of food! How will we survive?””We can live for many days without food,” his father said. “We can not live a single minute without faith and hope. This is the fire of hope. Never let it go out. Not here! Not anywhere!”
When hope fills our heart we dream of a better future. We begin to see possibilities that we may not have otherwise seen. It makes the seemingly impossible become possible. It is when we lose possibilities that we start to wither away on the inside. Show me someone who has no hope and I will show you someone who will eventually give up in their pursuits. However, show me someone with hope and I will show you someone who will have limitless possibilities ahead of him or her. Hope is the backbone of all great exploration. One will never step out into uncharted territory without the belief that they are able to get to somewhere better. Our country was founded on the premise of hope.
Nothing great can be built for the future while living in the past. Hope causes people to look forward and prepare for a better tomorrow. Most people spend their time repairing yesterday’s mistakes rather than preparing for tomorrow’s possibilities. But hope-driven people prepare to make the future better than the past. They keep their eyes looking forward. No one can ever get anywhere if they are staring in the rearview mirror of life. If what happened in the past is bigger than what we see for the future, hope will begin to fade away. When this happens, the belief for a better future goes with it. If we talk more about the past than the future, we will never move ahead into greater opportunities. We all can certainly learn from the past and appreciate the past, but we cannot allow ourselves to get stuck in the past. Never let the past determine the future.
Are you hopeful for the future? Are you driven by the belief that God has your future and it has been prepared for you? Here is some things to think about when it comes to H.O.P.E…
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