New motto - stop hoping, start doing

So runs an old adage about the importance of hope in combating the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Robert Burns called hope ‘the cordial of the human heart’.

Alexandre Dumas’s celebrated novel, ‘The Count of Monte Christo’ is based on a true story of a man wrongly convicted of treason, who through long arduous years cherished the hope of being released to wreak vengeance on those who had betrayed him.

The novel ends with the verdict, ‘Has not the count just told us that all human wisdom is contained in these two words --‘Wait and hope’?

Hope is a key Christian virtue. When Paul set down his matchless ‘Hymn to love’ (1 Corinthians 13), he listed the three most prominent Christian virtues, and hope was the second in that trinity of faith, hope and love.

In the letter to the Hebrews, hope is one of the great ‘anchors of the soul’(6;19), enabling the Christian to struggle against himself and his temptations, because he has something infinitely precious to look forward to. For the believer there is the element of certainty.

Yet when most people use the word ‘hope’ it is a vague and uncertain thing. Wilkins Micawber, one of Dickens’ most memorable creations, was always ‘waiting for something to turn up’.

Many hopes are little more than wishful thinking. The person who says, ‘I hope it is sunny next week when I am on holiday’ is merely expressing a wish, for there is nothing he can do to ensure the weather is dry and sunny.

Likewise, If I am rushed into hospital for emergency surgery, I may hope that there is a surgeon on hand who is experienced in his profession, but my hope is not going to enhance the skills of the hospital staff. Such hopes are ineffective.

That is why a leading environmental activist, Derrick Jensen, views hope, not as a beacon in the darkness, but as a curse. For him, merely to hope is to ignore or forget our ability to change things.

It is not enough merely to hope that polar bears and giant pandas do not become extinct, and that climate change can be controlled. He wishes us to do something about such things, and to change our lifestyle and interests to ensure that what we wish for becomes reality. He would say, ‘Stop hoping, start doing’.

Mahatma Gandhi who by his policy of nonviolent non co-operation led the struggle for Indian independence once said, ‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world’.

C.S .Lewis pointed out that the Christian hope is not wishful thinking, but rather the inspiration for a life of action. He observed that the great Christian social reformers - John Newton, William Wilberforce, Lord Shaftesbury, John Howard, Elizabeth Fry - not only hoped for a better world, but acted to make it more of a reality. Lewis wrote: ‘I you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next’. If that is your hope, stop hoping and start doing’.