Getting your hopes up ... and gazumping

"You know what hope is? Hope is a bastard

Hope is a liar, a cheat and a tease

Hope comes near you, kick his backside,

Got no place in days like these"

Ben Folds, 'Picture Window', 2010


"Time after time I think 'Oh Lord what's the use?'

Time after time I think it's just no good

Sooner or later in life, the things you love you lose

But you've got the love I need to see me through"

Florence and the Machine, 'You've Got the Love', 2009

This topic is so good it gets two songs. I've actually been sitting on these songs - and this topic - for a while, but it finally feels like I may have enough to say on it now (but will it be coherent? Time will tell). I'm not even going to try to define it ... they tried on the episode of Family Guy I watched the other night, which was comedic as usual but perhaps not worth repeating.

Firstly, I'm going to start with some (random) characteristics that I've learnt about myself over the course of time:

1. I really don't like the colours black and brown together. People wear these together often but I steer clear of it.

2. I was once much more ambitious than I am now. There was no particular turning point, I just gradually stopped aiming so high.

3. I really don't feel I worry and/or think too hard about anything - once again a trait that has slowly crept up on me. This one I attribute entirely to the Holy Spirit and in the hope I have through Christ (particularly for his return).

That said, there is plenty that I hope for in this world. Just this week I had great hopes of being a home owner, only to get outbid ('gazumped' is the actual term) at the last minute. My other great hope that comes to mind is that those in my life who are yet to have children will succeed, even if they sometimes feel hopeless. I can sometimes have a Ben Folds view and sometimes a Florence view - unfortunately I think most people can often see hope as it is written by Ben Folds.

I think hope drives Christians to 'become like some to win some'. I think the following story illustrates this to a degree, even though my research shows the woman in question wasn't a Christian:

"Live Aid", Aryn Baker, Viewpoint in TIME magazine (October 25, 2010)

"(Linda) Norgrove was killed in a failed rescue attempt on Oct 8 ... the world lost a dedicated, caring woman committed to improving the life of Afghans - and the community in which she lived lost hope."

"... Norgrove spoke fluent Dari, dressed in local clothes and, even though she was not Muslim, wore a headscarf because it smoothed her working relationship with locals. Her commitment to working directly with the people she served made her both an effective administrator of aid - and a target. It was a chance she was willing to take."

And so, to conclude ... that was much shorter than I thought it would be. Maybe I don't really have enough to say on hope yet.