Hope for the Best

By Lucell Larawan

No one can tell when the world economy will completely reopen. More than two-thirds of the employees are jobless. Many businesses are in a stand-still. Instead of complaining or whining, let us see this lockdown as a rebooting. As computers need rebooting, so do we.

The process may not make sense to many but after it, we are renewed. The unwanted stuffs are thrown away to unburden the system. We come out more productive—more agile and more incisive.

Just hope for the best. Bad things happen because they are bound to come. We can rebound if we have hope.

If we put our hope on earthly things, we are facing the odds. In “Life: the Odds”, Gregory Baer wrote:

“What are the odds of dating a supermodel? Assuming there are twenty-five of them, and each of them will date five men per year, and there are 100,000 adult males who will spend ten years seeking to date one, the chances of it happening in that ten-year period are 88,000 to 1. Not very good odds.

What are the odds of marrying a millionaire? By 2005 it was estimated that there were about 5.6 million of them in America. The bad news is that 92% of them are married. Which leaves 448,000 single millionaires.

With about 97 million singles in the US (as of 2000 Census), that makes the odds of marrying a millionaire 215 to 1. Better odds than dating a supermodel, but still not very good.

What are the odds of becoming a professional athlete? It is 22,000 is to 1. So it will be a good idea to earn a degree while you are shooting for this goal.

What about the odds of starting a successful small business? According to the Small Business Administration, one third of the small businesses fail in the first two years, half fail within four years, and 60% fail within six years.”

With these illustrations, hope can be fragile if we focus on getting things. If we are Christians, however, hope is secure.

There are passages in the Bible that reminds us of our rewards if we overcome in this perilous journey. For instance, in Revelations 2:11, it says: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not at all be hurt by the second death.”

Would it be nice if we fix our hope in the statement of Jesus, “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God (Revelations 2: 7)?”

“Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is not virtue at all…As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery of platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be strength.” This statement by G.K. Chesterton is meaningful.