One of the things my family enjoys doing together is playing board games. We have shelves full of games we have played throughout the years. Every Christmas, I try to find a new family gift that will contribute to more laughs and memories. We each have a level of competitiveness, making the games more interesting.
During one of our recent family game nights, my youngest son commented how he was not focused on winning the game but on how he could prevent others from winning. How he can strategically place his chips to stop the sequence of another's row of chips from dominating the game. A minute passed as I reflected on his words. We all chuckled at his statement before I had to interject and ask him why he focused on his opponent's moves versus his own. There are many moving pieces, and the game can progress quickly or slowly depending on the players, but if he's always focused on others, he will never win.
Ironically, as I was trying to speak the truth to my son about the board game, the Lord said the same to me about the game of life. I may be too focused on what is wrong that I miss out on what is right. My attention span on what God is doing is distracted by what the enemy is doing. I observe what I don't have rather than what I do have. I recognize more of the problems versus the solutions. Why compare others' successes against my failures?
I tucked that conversation away until I had more time to process the weight of those words. Once I did, I started journaling my thoughts as I asked the Holy Spirit what the root was. He revealed to me that it was my lack of hope. Those words hit me hard because I thought I was more hopeful than hopeless. I have had my share of crushing seasons, but I didn't know it influenced me so much that it impacted my hope meter.
Coincidentally, a day after conversing with the Holy Spirit about my waning hope, I received a blog post from Steve Backlund, a leader from Bethel Church, who is the founder of a ministry called Igniting Hope, discussing the hot topic of hope. Some of the wisdom from the "Viktor Frankl's revelation of Hope" post:
"Hope is the belief that the future will be better than the present and we have the power to help make it so. When we don't have this strong vision and purpose for the future, we will live from our past instead of our future. Our thinking will fixate on the past (regrets, good old days, if only, etc.), and, as a result, we will adopt a victim mindset and be without vitality in the present."
"One thing I do: forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things that are ahead. ~Philippians 3:13 There are those things for all of us to reach forward to. Clarifying what "those things" are is a main part of living in hope."
"Why are you alive? What difference do you want to make in the future? What problem do you want to fix? What strength do you want to bring to your family or society?"
"Once we get hope for the future (having a purpose and the belief we can make a difference), we will be amazed at the multiple options we will see for reaching our goals. In his book, Be Your Future Self Now, Dr. Benjamin Hardy quotes Dr. Charles Snyder, whom Hardy says is the world's leading expert and researcher on hope. Snyder says, "High hope people find multiple pathways to reach their goals and willingly try new approaches to do so. Low hope people, on the other hand, stick with one approach and do not try other avenues. If stymied, instead of using problem-focused thoughts, the low hope people often use counterproductive avoidance and disengagement thinking. Reinforced in the short-term by their avoidance thoughts, low hope people will continue their passivity. Unfortunately they do not learn from past experiences. High hope people, however, use information about not reaching their goals as diagnostic feedback to search for other feasible approaches."
"High hope people create a way because to have hope, you either see a way to realize your goal or are flexible enough to create a way. When hope exists, there is always a way. There are no hopeless situations, just people who do not have hope. There is always a solution. Hope does not consider how bad the odds look for success but believes a difference can be made."
"Napoleon said, "Leaders are brokers of hope". The difference between a leader and a manager is that the leader focuses on why the organization or group exists, while the manager focuses on efficiency. We need efficiency, but even that will break down without hope."
If we pay closer attention to what God is doing, our hope will continue to soar. Don't be like me and get distracted by what's happening around you, but remain mindful of what is happening inside you. Hope will always win.
"But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." ~Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)
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