HOPE

 Hope without human effort is empty.

 Hope is associated with the fulfillment of our vital needs. On a daily basis, we use the word hope. We wish for things to happen, things we believe we need. Some of our wants are fairly reasonable while others are simply just outrageous. The other Sunday, I walked by a church in my neighborhood and on passing by, I heard the preacher during their prayer session say this year of 2022, ‘you shall not fall sick’, ‘everything will work for your good’ and it got me thinking. It has become normal that such bold declarations are made and we the congregation believe and sing these phrases like mantras unaware of the true implications of such bold statements. I understand the above example can be interpreted as acts of faith but can you really have faith without hope? It is simply impossible: for in faith, we hope. And the same way faith cannot work without action, hope is void without effort. You can't say that this year will be your year of victory whereas you still uphold the same habits of the previous year. 

If you fall into a stream and you don't know how to swim, it is futile to expect that someone will come save you without you trying different techniques on how to sustain yourself till help comes. I am not disputing or downplaying the importance of hope in any way but I am trying to make us understand that desire without human effort is a sure path to despair. Hope is made of two parts: the part that we can control and that which is beyond our reach. The former sets the stage for the latter to occur.

In the month of march 2021, I headed a team that was organizing a one week event. We structured a plan and according to that plan, relied so much on external support and little efforts towards internal measures to meet the required budget. Like any of such events, the budget was huge and we hoped the people we reached out to for support would buy our vision in its entirety and sponsor the whole thing. Like that would actually happen.

About a month to the event itself, these persons that i had written to didn't meet my expectations. We placed so much hope on them that when things didn't go the way i expected, it broke me. All of my dreams and vision for this program just went out of the window. It felt like we set ourselves up for failure. Luckily, a plan that was devised just to support the event turned out to be our Hail Mary. The budget generated from this activity turned out to be key towards the success of the event. At the end of the event I gained clarity on one thing: if I ever have a want, vision or idea we want to execute, placing one's hopes solely on external factors is a sure way to despair. Even if these persons pledge that they will support us with everything we need, construct a back up plan. Life happens.

In conclusion, the power of meliorism suggests that through human effort we can change the world. It is my believe that this same power of meliorism is key in achieving all our hopes and dreams. So let's stop vaguely wishing and hoping for things to happen and put in the effort to actually turn our hopes to reality. For indeed, hope without human effort is empty.