The basis for hope

The basis for optimism is sheer terror. We are too scared to admit our lives are not what we'd like them to be. We wrap ourselves in the blankets of illusion and compromise, hoping to avoid the cold of reality. The truth is we've all fallen at some point. We've all woken up in the middle of the night and wished we were somewhere, or even SOMEONE else. Yet, that, I think, is the problem. That we ARE someone else. Most people are other people. Our thoughts are someone else's opinions, our lives a mimicry, our passions a quotation.

"We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

That's the main thought I want to emphasis in this blog. We all get hurt, we all get beat down, we all become a facade, and we all are brokenhearted. The key difference is where we place our hope.

"But, Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The Sky, not the grave is our goal...
...Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say:
It is well, it is well with my soul!"

P.S.
To add a little bit of irony to this post, I must tell you many of these thoughts rely heavily on, if are not direct quotes from the written work of Oscar Wild. I do not find a major problem in this. Mr. Wild and I end up in two very different places of thought. I think it is safe to say my thoughts are not his opinions. Rather my life is the feeble reflection of Christ, in whom I have all confidence and trust, and am unashamed to imitate. Again, our defining characteristics are in what or who we place our hope. Hope: the key I sometimes ponder Mr. Wild lost.

-James