Life is Hard...Hopelessness is a Choice

Here is a profound statement: there are times when life is hard. Life is hard when you apply sunscreen three times in two hours and still leave the river with a terrible sun burn. Life is hard when your car starts making a knocking sound and you still have to get to work everyday. Life is hard when the electricity bill comes after a month of 100+ degree heat. Life is hard when a dear friend seems to have made incredibly disappointing choices that affect so many people around her, and you are left, with many others, to pick up the pieces. Life is hard when a loved one develops what seems to be an incurable infection that make take her life. Life is hard when... (add your own struggles and disappointments here.)

The preceding statements could lead to a deep and profound discussion surrounding the meaning of life? When will the economy improve? Why do we really need money anyway? Why do people make choices that deeply hurt other people? How do you make the choice for another person to stop treating the infection and let it run its course? Why do loved ones - or anyone for that matter - have to die? If God is a loving God, then why is life hard?

I certainly cannot answer these questions with any kind of depth and significance in a blog post. But here are a few thoughts I am having right now. Life is a series of crossroads. And while it may be the challenges of life that push us to the crossroads, once we are there we have a choice to make. Will we choose hopelessness or will we choose hope? The sunburn will eventually heal - hope for that day to come soon. The car can be taken to a shop and be fixed - hope for opportunities to invite others to serve you. Money is only money and even though it seems to be so necessary for life on earth, hope for appreciation of simplicity in this life and abundance in life that is to come. Other people will make bad choices that directly affect you - choose to view the situation as an opportunity to grow and to share hope with others who are hurting. Everyone is going to die - some people actually get to make choices about death and some die unexpectedly. Either way, the important choices are not necessarily those that we make at the edge of death but those that we make every day when life is hard. Choose hope - choose eternal life - choose to live as a child of God. Then, when life does come to an end, there is only hope in what is to come.