The last thing I’m feeling right now is hopeful.
What I’m mostly feeling right now is what most of us are probably feeling right now…
Uncertainty, irritation, fear.
Uncertain about the future of not just our immediate community but the whole world. I mean it really feels like we’re in a movie–the whole world working towards the same end. That only happens when aliens blow up buildings and Will Smith saves the day.
Irritation because our lives have completely changed. Almost in an instant everything has changed. Schedules flipped upside down and toilet paper no where in sight. Irritation because we’re spending the time with our loved ones that we always says we should be spending with them and then finding out there’s a reason we put that space between us in the first place–they’re annoying.
Fear because what if this thing doesn’t go away? What if I get it? What if things get worse?
The last point is the one that will take us quickly into a realm from which we will likely not return.
Fear is the one thing we can’t let win. Uncertainty, yes, but we’re kind of used to things being uncertain as we’re all humans and deal with uncertainty the moment we’re born. Irritation, yes, because sometimes our families are more annoying than anything we can ever imagine.
But fear? Fear will destroy us. It will destroy us. Fear takes no prisoners. Fear kills on sight.
Fear. Will. Destroy. Us.
Maybe you’ve already beat me to where I’m going with this.
Hope destroys fear. Hope kills fear. Hope takes no prisoners. Hope kills fear on sight.
Hope rebuilds us.
Hope. Rebuilds. Us.
And thank God for this piece–hope is a decision. It’s not just a feeling that we have to wait for and maybe hope for. We decide to hope and hope immediately destroys fear.
We have to hope.
Hope is sort of our own version of the alien spacecraft Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum steal in order to destroy the main ship that’s causing all of the destruction which is an embodiment in itself of fear. And if you remember, when they got the spacecraft where it needed to be, they realized they were stuck and likely not getting out of that main ship alive. So, they rolled down the window, or whatever that front shield thing was, had a couple cigars in their mouths and big smiles on their faces. It looked pretty inevitable that they weren’t going to make it. But they knew this was their one chance. And they made it.
Now, I know this is a fictional movie, and a great one if you ask me, but that’s also kind of how we have to approach this thing fear when it rolls in.
Just like they had their tool for what they needed in the movie, we have what we need to destroy that thing that will not hesitate for a second in destroying us. We have hope.
And right now, we have to hope.
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