Soldiers of Hope

Greek thinkers throughout history have pondered hope. Pascal wrote:
“We are never satisfied with the present... We scarcely ever think of the present; if we do it is only to obtain light the wherewith to organize future. The present is never our goal; the past and present are our means; the future alone is our objective. Thus we never live, but only hope to live; and as we are forever preparing to be happy, we shall assuredly never be so.”
Pope observed:
“Hope springs eternally in the human breast; man never is, but always will be blest”
I wonder if it is time we give up on hope? Maybe hope is just a mockery of those deep desires that will never amount to reality. Why not be pessimistic about the future?
Because we can’t afford to lose such a valuable virtue,
Today is Remembrance Day; a day where we remember young men and women who had hope, who gave their lives for our freedom, for our safety, and for our futures. Clines wrote that:
“One of the distinguishing features of hope, indeed what is claimed to be its most important characteristic, psychologically speaking, is that it is realistic: it seeks, directs itself to, strives for, imagines, and finds real. This is what distinguishes it from mere desire, wishing and fantasy.”
Hope is powerful because it looks into the unwritten future and anticipates what could be. It beckons humanity forward. Those who live toward the fulfillment of promise are not seized by a ‘passion for the possible’ as Kierkegaard said, but by a passion for the impossible. Our ancestors were seized by this ‘passion for the impossible.’ Their hope was not irrational, like looking forward to winning the lottery, but rather was rooted in the promise long written down by our founding fathers in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms:
“Canada is founded upon the principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law and the promise that everyone has the fundamental freedom of (a) conscience and religion, (b) the freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other means of communication, (c) the freedom of peaceful assembly; and (d) the freedom of association.”
For this they fought and died.
Should you and I be reserved and content with the assurance our lives are set in fate and cast aside our dreams? Absolutely not! We must not; for every blessing and opportunity we have received is due to the sacrifice of our fathers who had hope, a hope which transcended wishful thinking and was revealed in their assurance of what was unseen as they laid down their lives for our freedom.
Our ancestors had faith in God and declared what kind of nation Canada would be and today is. Thank God for heroes past who hoped in this declaration, even to the grave.
(Moment of Silence)
Final Thought: If through faith in the promise of our forefathers (who trusted God) our nation remains free; How much greater can our influence be on the earth through faith in the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ?