More from Peter....

Faith versus hope.

 

I used to be pretty certain that I knew the difference between these two words. Faith is believing in something you know to be true but can't necessarily prove it. Hope is just wishing for something - like I hope to win the lottery,  however lately I feel like my faith has turned to hope. I hope there is a God, I hope Jacqui’s surgery goes well. When I try to analyze why I am feeling this way, I guess I am just not as certain as I once was, about anything. I think for the most part I was living in a fantasy world, living my life with really no major tragedies or problems. When something does happen you assume things will work out the way you want them to and when they don’t, then what? Bad things happen all the time, to everyone, really, that is life. It basically comes down to how you are going to handle it when the going gets tough.

In the movie, Signs (I know it has Mel Gibson in it but still a good flick) he gives this speech to his brother (for you movie buffs out there, I altered it slightly and took out the reference to the spaceships) He says to his brother:

 

“People break down into two groups when they experience something lucky.

Group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them.

Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. For them, the situation is fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear.

Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in the Group number one, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope.

See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky?

Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?”

Does Jacqui have cancer for a reason? is there a message of hope that she is living out?  Am I too close to see it or am I refusing to look for it. I know she is an inspiration to some, (myself included) probably more than we will know and probably more of one than if she had been living her life as I would have planned out for her

I need to look at the positives, yes Jacqui has cancer, again, but the upside is we still have her and we still have a fighting chance to beat this effing disease. Hope. Some aren’t given a chance to fight, they lose their life in an accident or some terrible way, and they are gone. I would think that would be so much more difficult to handle as there is no hope in that case. 

I have people saying to me that they can’t imagine how they could handle the situation we are in and to be honest, there are some days where I don’t think I can handle it and yet life continues, your job still brings you to work each day, you continue to breath, eat, live and sleep (sleep is more difficult but may be overrated too) you continue to function even when things seem less important, less meaningful, you continue to live your life and try to remain hopeful. And really, no matter how bad you think things are there really are people living through way more difficult situations then the one you are in.

So this holiday season, all I really want is to put hope in my faith and faith in my hope. I really want to be in that first group and see the signs and evidence that there is someone up there watching out for us.