“Dr. Gerald May in his life giving book, Addiction and Grace, shares his thoughts about the risks of faith.
He states that “Several times now I have said that our real hope lies in that no matter how oppressed we may be, we always retain some spark of capacity to choose. We can use the ember of freedom to choose to risk ourselves in the goodness of God or to continue to strive for our own autonomy or to give in to the powers that oppress us. I am convinced that nothing whatever determines the choices we make at the primal level, here, finally, the choices are totally up to us; we really are free.” (p.127)
After reading these pieces dealing with hope we are left with the possibility that maybe even I or you have to start today. Yes, obviously to hope is to be living with some risk, but that beats, by a long shot, living in the unreal world of certainty that things will never get better for us.
The following is a text taken verbatim from the Depressed Anonymous Publication (c) I’LL DO IT WHEN I FEEL BETTER (2009), PAGES, 66-68.
“Ray (member of Depressed Anonymous fellowship) continues to talk about the various parts that make up one’s progress on the path to recovery. I think most depression sufferer’s go through a time of hopelessness and this feeling is very disabling for many of us. But with most problems or illnesses there is always hope. Hope that our problems will be solved or that will get better. So if hope is part of the solution, how do we find our own path of hope? Before we take that path I think it is important to see how the path is formed.
1. The first item is choices. We make choices every day for ourselves, some simple, some complex. These choices may affect us for the rest of our lives, that is, what do I want to do in life? What do I want from my life? What are my goals in life. Our lives are formed and maybe our own meaning of life is revealed to us. So our path is first formed with the choices that we make.”
2. Continued tomorrow—-stay tuned! Thank you
Copyright(c) How to find hope and let it blossom. Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, Ky 40217. Pages 10-12.