losing sight

Who knew clichés really could get you through life?

Over the last few months, I think I've lost some of my mental vision. I'm having trouble seeing through the fog of life and it's really been bogging me down. During this time, my biggest pet peeve was when people would throw out a cliché to answer my problems, or make me feel better.

"Don't worry, it will all work out in the end."

"You know, the sun will come out tomorrow."

"It could always be worse."

My reactions were always a bit negative when I got that kind of feedback. Thinking to myself, "Yeah, I'm sure it will work out in the end – but when is the end????" "I'm sure the sun will come out tomorrow, but it will just be lighting another terrible and busy day." "I'm sure it could always be worse – but that doesn't mean this is any less painful."

The problem with my reactions above (so I'm starting to figure out) is that I've lost sight of the meaning – and I stopped believing. At church this weekend, they talked about having beliefs vs. believing in something. I think I've always had beliefs, but have not always believed in them.

It's easy to stand up and say you believe in something – going green, budgeting your money, loving your wife, etc – but it's something totally different to stand up and change your life to match your beliefs. How many of us believe in saving the earth? We would say it's a good idea to use less, to waste less, and stop harming the world. But how many times have I used a plastic bag anyway, or simply thrown away a battery, or used disposable things when I could have re-used something else? I'm starting to realize (and maybe I'm the only one on this train) that just having beliefs about something isn't enough – it needs to go deeper – it needs to change who you are to the core. If it doesn't, it's not worth believing in anyway.

I'm figuring out now that if I truly believed, those clichés people are throwing out should give me hope, should help me through my day and should actually make me feel better. If I truly believed it would all work out in the end, shouldn't that give me the strength to keep pushing through today knowing it would all work out eventually? I'm realizing now that the clichés are there to provide one thing – hope. I think I've truly been without hope for a long time. Deep down I had beliefs – I knew everything would work out in the end – but I didn't let it change me, and I didn't really hold onto it. When people are saying, "Don't worry, it will all work out in the end" – what they are really trying to tell me is, "Keep going, keep pushing through – have hope and be encouraged that your fight will not be for nothing." It's a much longer sentence though so I can see why that hasn't caught on yet.

At the end of the day, having hope is what keeps us getting up each day and pushing through life – hope of experiencing the simple things in life (like my morning cup of coffee), hope that some one will notice us and say hello (always nice to be noticed), hope that when we have completed another trip through whatever events we have scheduled we will be able to look back and see the good points in the day.

Hope is important and an ingredient in life that isn't optional. I think I've finally started to turn the corner like the picture at the beginning…I've gone from NO Hope to KNOW Hope…the K and the W make all the difference.