Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Hope (05/04/06)
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TITLE: A Bookie's Nightmare | Previous Challenge Entry
By Helen Murray
05/08/06 -
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“Hope, thy name is frailty.”
Sounds like a Shakespearian quote.
Actually it’s a “…..” quote. Sorry but I can’t put my name to this right now! That puzzle remains unsolved until next week! Those are the conditions of entry into this writers’ competition.
If you’re passionate to discover my name, you can indeed do that next week. Your hope has substance. There is no frailty attached to it, only a time lag. There is every reason to think that you can discover my name next week.
If, on the other hand, you hope that my article is worth the time and energy you are spending on reading it, the hope is more frail. There is no guarantee of that at all. What if you get through it and there is nothing to invigorate you? How frail is that hope?
Always, with hope, there is expectation. Expectation is the subtitle for “Hope”. The question is whether the expectation will or will not be justified.. I’m actually hoping to hear from my daughters for Mothers’ Day. For many mothers, this is a certainty, and there is little frailty in this hope. For me, because of the background issues, this is a more frail operation. My children and I have endured many years of separation. Last year, for the first time, my daughters invited me out for lunch to celebrate that day. I was ecstatic, until the day arrived. I was horribly sick and could not go anywhere! I took a raincheck on the date. This year I’m hoping to cash in on that raincheck! There’s a degree of frailty attached to that hope. I don’t really know what percentage of frailty it is. 100%? 50%?
If I should get a last minute (this would be the most likely) phone call letting me know what they want to do on Mothers’ Day, I’ll say there was zero frailty attached to my hope. I guess I should take a tip from the bookies at the races to try and work out the odds!
Come to think of it, the bookmakers’ art is exactly right for working out the odds on hope, the odds being the frailty ratings! It’s a skill everybody wants to get a handle on in life on this earth. If I do this the results will be ……, but if we go that way we could hope for this …….. result! We constantly weigh up the pros and cons - that is if we are educated not to go all the way with feelings. You could say we are always betting – acting on a decision that we hope has been a wise one and will present that certain result. Many times we crash. Abraham Lincoln crashed many times before becoming the President of the USA. Edison crashed hundreds of times before inventing electric light. Our whole learning process, or creative process, whichever way you like to think of it, depends on measured hope.
Persistence may win if correctly applied in the inventions game. Persistence seems not always pertinent, and that’s where prayer might come in. At times the things we long for are not within our grasp, so we go to the God of the impossible for our miracle. We start to rely on His Word and apply our persistence to prayer. Why? Because God’s Word is Absolute Truth!. His promises are Yea and Amen. All we have to do is line ourselves up with Him! His love is faithful. His ear (hearing our prayer) is an absolute certainty (unless, fellas, we are being unkind to our wives! Or indeed some other misdemeanor is blocking the system). We can mess up, but we know God cannot, because He is no liar and His teachings are 100% accurate, His Word 100% guaranteed! .He is the author, arbiter and instructor of all things. His Word established everything and cannot be gainsaid!
WOW! There’s the WOW factor! 100%. No room for bookies here! Absolute certainty! Total satisfaction!. Infinite righteousness! Complete answers (we see through a glass darkly now but in Heaven we will actually understand the answers – God- just as totally as He currently knows us, His creation!) HOPE substantiated! (Don’t you love that? Faith is the substance of things not seen., the reality, hope with substance) HOPE justified! HOPE realised! HOPE WITHOUT FRAILTY!
It’s a whole new world!
No betting on the odds here!
It’s a bookie’s nightmare!
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