Why Hope

1/4/2022

Dear Why Team member,
Happy New Year!!

2021, the year of Hope,
2022, the year of Hope.

Audio:🗣

Is it okay to continue the theme from a year to another? Sure!
Looking back at our first blog of 2021, I invited you to look at the year as the Year of Hope with Hope being our Reward.
Entering 2022, I still encourage you to look at Hope as a reward and for its power for improvement as a theme for the New Year.

I often encourage you to enjoy the Present, it’s the best present you may ever get. But we are also served to have a vision for the future;
Shane Lopez, in his book,
“Make Hope Happen", shares his discovery that the quality of our life in the present depends upon the quality of our relationship with the unknown future and may I add, with the lessons we learned from our past;
Why improve our relationship with the unknown future? To reap the possibilities; our capacity today to serve others, to make a difference in the world, is directly related to the relationship we develop with the unknown future. While we are prone to desperately seek certainty in an uncertain future, those who develop confidence and hope for the positive outcome of the unknown, are best served and thus best equipped to serve others. Isn’t it that the best planners are the ones who plan for the best and prepare for the worst? As opposed to the other way around?

Apparently, we are uniquely built for the challenges of life, in fact it is the very challenges in our lives that make our individual lives so amazing. Who wants to read a novel that has one boring chapter after another; do we not enjoy more the book that has many unexpected twists and turns?

Several years ago I read Daniel Gilbert’s book, "Stumbling on Happiness" where he shares that we are most rewarded when we take on really big challenges. His research reveals that the bigger the task, the bigger the reward; within us, we have what he refers to as a psychological immune system that takes whatever large audacious task we embark upon, and no matter the outcome, we are lifted up in a multitude of ways, elevating our confidence, courage, tenacity and fortitude. Gilbert's research finds that it is more the little irritants in life that do not engage this immune system thus causing us to have feelings of unhappiness - maybe this is why a gratitude list for the simpler things can help push those smaller irritants from our mind, focusing us more on the journey rather than the pebbles in our path. Apparently we are uniquely rewarded for choosing the most difficult path we can find.

How much more rewarding and effective do we become when we recognize that life is suppose to be difficult and that our best response to it is, "Awesome, thank you, give me some more!"? Do we not come to know ourselves more when we are challenged? Romans 5:4 reads: "...and endurance produces character and character produces hope". Instead of fearing what lies around the corner, consider getting excited for those character building experiences; knowing that you have within you what it takes to make it, to make you into a person more capable of taking it.

2020 and 2021 has brought all of us around the globe the need for hope. May we all be more grateful and hopeful in 2022.

Life itself is a character building experience; welcome life, learning, growing and knowing that life becomes even brighter when we hope and are excited for what it will bring.

I hope you are filled with hope for this New Year and beyond.

Make it a great week!

Steve Luckenbach

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