Insights by Michelle Libby

Hope can change the world

We hear the word hope all the time. People toss it around…”I hope I get that promotion.” “I hope that my mail has arrived.” “I hope that my parents bought me the new game for my gaming system.”

I’ve been thinking about the word. It started when I spoke with John and Linda Gregoire. John is afflicted with ALS, a debilitating disease, but he hasn’t lost hope. He has a Facebook page set up that is hope-focused. People from all over the world send the words “Hope JG” written with everything from twigs to markers. The friends and family of John are hoping for a cure for ALS.

The tragic tornados in Oklahoma might cause people to lose hope, and for good reason. There were slabs of concrete where houses used to be, but people didn’t lose hope. They have hope for the future, which gives them the courage to rebuild, much like they did the last time a tornado tore through Moore in 1999.

Hope is more than religion, more than one person. Hope is a collective body working as a unit to keep spirits alive and energized. Hope is watching a smile spread across the face of a mother who has just given birth, holding the next generation tight to her chest. Hope is taking the leap into marriage for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health and expecting that’s what marriage is.

Hope is the belief that there is something out there in the big, wide world that makes life worth living and keeps man-kind moving forward day in and day out.

So think about what the word “hope” means to you.

Now, make it happen.