In the June 2009 issue of the Ensign Magazine, there is an article by Larry Hiller on the topic of hope. In the article he tells how “hope is anything but wishful. It is expectation based on experience.” Brother Hiller also shares this poem that he wrote:
Walking with Two Sisters
Faith walks before me,
Holding up her lamp
As I try not to stumble in the ink-
dark hours before the dawn.
Her light illuminates
One step and then another
Beside me, Hope, arm linked
with mine, encourages and
steadies.
Sometimes in the tedium,
Distracted by the pain,
My mind begins to wander, then
my feet. I hesitate.
Unsure, I look to Hope.
Her hand takes mine.
The touch reminds me of another
hand held out to me,
One pierced and scarred
Yet oh so tender
Lifting me and blessing me when
I had fallen and despaired.
Remembering,
I move ahead
Buoyed up by Hope, who sees
the end with perfect clarity.
Please share your thoughts on this poem, and if you wish, share any thoughts or experiences you have had with hope.
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The best part of this poem, for me, is the imagery of Faith not being enough –or not having enough Faith to get through the really awful times. But having Hope? Even hoping enough to have the Faith? It makes so much sense! I often find myself needing to cling to Hope –hope that I will find the faith necessary to make it, you know?
Wow the quote that “hope is expectation based on experience” really made hope more tangible to me.
I love the imagery of this poem. When I was sick with cancer, faith lit the way through the dark, but yes, it was hope I clung to…hope that stayed beside me when faith was walking ahead.
A well-meaning acquaintance and fellow cancer patient told me I’d be inundated with people advising me to keep a positive attitude. He said it was silly to have “false hope” and that cancer killed people with positive attitudes as well as those with bad. That may be true, but the comment was like poison to me–even more poisonous than the chemotherapy they pumped into my veins. I knew that to live without hope was no life I’d care to live. I didn’t know what God had planned for me, but I could hope to linger on the earth, and I could have faith that the right thing would happen.
At first it seemed like a contradiction. I hoped for life, but I almost felt guilty about it. I knew I needed to be submissive to God’s will, and I didn’t know what that was. I worried it was inappropriate to hope to live, because maybe that wasn’t what God wanted. But when I view hope and faith as two sisters, one leading me and one walking beside me, I feel peace and comfort.
I love this poem too. I read the article and poem awhile ago and it has really stayed with me.