Faith and Hope

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  Hebrews 11:1

(**photo courtesy of Megan**)

While we were at the cabin, I picked up an old copy of The Ensign magazine (November 1994 to be exact).  

I thumbed through it's pages.  

That was the month and year of our wedding.  

I remembered watching the session of general conference reported on in that issue there at the cabin with Tim and some other family members, but of course the details of topics and speakers had faded.    

Several of the general conference addresses caught my attention, but one stood out because of the title:  "Brightness of Hope", by Neal A. Maxwell.

I needed some brightness of hope right then, so I kept reading.

"...Does hope really matter, or is it merely an antique virtue?"

"...Having ultimate hope does not mean we will always be rescued from proximate problems..."

Then this analogy which helped me understand the relationship between faith and hope in a new way:

"In the geometry of restored theology, hope has a greater circumference than faith. If faith increases, the perimeter of hope stretches correspondingly."

There came into my mind a picture of concentric circles with faith on the inside and hope on the outside.  I could imagine times when I felt myself losing hope, and visualized that outer circle shrinking, and collapsing inward on faith until the light of faith was gone.  I've felt that crushing feeling before, and know the feeling of clinging to a sliver of hope, allowing it to flow into me, and feeling my faith expand accordingly.

Hope feels better than despair.

It felt good to reach for that sliver of light and choose hope.