Developing a Better You

Tag: finding hope

Finding Stability in Turbulent Times

It was an impressive sight.

The howling wind whipped the Pacific into a roiling mass of white-capped waves, sending our cruise ship lurching. Despite the warm temperature, I sat on our balcony wrapped in a coat to shield myself from the ocean spray and took in Nature’s powerful display.

The water’s ever-shifting surface seemed an apt analogy for the world today. Crashing financial markets. Natural disasters fueled by climate change. Political division. Social unrest. It feels like the world itself is moving beneath our feet.

It’s normal for humans to crave a certain level of security. Where do we look for stability, for solid ground, for a steady place to plant our feet? There are many options—our careers, our physical health, our social status, our relationships, our wealth, our hobbies. But if the current state of the world shows us anything, it’s that all of those things are changeable. Jobs are lost to downsizing or retirement. Finances decline. Societal tastes change. Loved ones leave us. Unexpected illnesses strike.

One of the unique aspects of faith is that it attempts to provide a more stable option for security in life, one that is not at the mercy of the winds of fate. Does that make the claims of faith true? Not at all. Is it possible to prove a Higher Power exists? No. While there are rational arguments for the existence of God (like the existence of the universe, the fine-tuning of the universe, the existence of moral law, along with their counter arguments), none of them are conclusive.

Yet I believe. I’m a person of faith based on a combination of intellectual arguments that I find compelling and a lifetime of subjective personal experiences. My personal beliefs have evolved far beyond my evangelical Christian upbringing to embrace the validity of other religions, people from every creed, orientation, and gender identity, and to reject the existence of hell. I believe we all were born of God’s love, live in God’s love, and will return to God’s love at death, belief not required.

Are there problems with my faith system? Absolutely. Are there short-comings with every other worldview? Yes. In a sea of imperfect choices, my faith is where I find my ultimate security, my stable foundation in an unstable world. Is everything I believe true? I don’t know. I could be wrong. But it gives me a level of hope, peace, love, meaning and security that I haven’t found anywhere else. That gives me comfort in stormy seas.

Where do you find your security? I’m in no way saying it needs to resemble mine. Consider your options. Find something that works for you. Choose well. Place your trust in something worthy of the incredible person you are. If you do, you’ll find stability in turbulent times, and you’ll take another step toward Becoming Yourself.

Hope is an Axe

Sometimes four words can stop your heart:

HOPE IS AN AXE.

Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency.

Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power

I’m a big fan of hope. I’ve thought about, cultivated, and written about it often (you can read those posts here, here, and here). But I’d never thought of hope in such a forceful way, like a weapon to cut through the morass of doubt, fear, and cynicism that surrounds us. It changes hope from a fragile, ephemeral feeling to a rugged, dependable tool.

That perspective on hope is mirrored in the response author, actor, and musician Nick Cave gave to a fan who presented him with a question I’m sure many of us have asked ourselves:

“Do you still believe in us human beings?”

Nick’s answer paints a sharp-edged view of hope:

Much of my early life was spent holding the world and the people in it in contempt. It was a position both seductive and indulgent. The truth is, I was young and had no idea what was coming down the line. It took a devastation to teach me the preciousness of life and the essential goodness of people. It took a devastation to reveal the precariousness of the world, of its very soul, and to understand that the world was crying out for help. It took a devastation to understand the idea of mortal value, and it took a devastation to find hope.

Unlike cynicism, hopefulness is hard-earned, makes demands upon us, and can often feel like the most indefensible and lonely place on Earth. Hopefulness is not a neutral position — it is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism.

Each redemptive or loving act, as small as you like — such as reading to your little boy, showing him something you love, singing him a song, or putting on his shoes — keeps the devil down in the hole. (Hope) says the world and its inhabitants have value, and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in. In time, we come to find that this is so.

Nick Cave

When you feel torn by the strain of the world, when people around you surrender to their shadow side, when cynicism sings its siren song, set your feet. Reach down deep. Heft the axe of hope. Slam its love-hardened blade into your anger, your despair, your fear. If you do, the sun will blaze through the rend in the darkness, and you’ll take another step toward Becoming Yourself.

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