Hope

Great achievements gives hope

Sonic travel gives hope

What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘Hope?’ The students were blank so I suggested that maybe they hoped that this class would go for five minutes and they would be able to go home early. I asked them what they hoped for in going to school. Someone said good marks which they hoped would lead to a satisfying job.

Nick and Matt save the day

Once again I struggled with technical issues. The program to run the short films was an .exe file and wouldn't install. Nick and Matt told me to load the program onto the desktop and it worked, yeah.

Two films on hope

The first film we watched as made by a Christian (http://www.campfire.net.au/node/184). Students were told to tell me what made it clear it was a Christian film. In summary it is about a boy with no hope, his parent’s party and night and ignores him during the day. There is no food, no company, and no guidance for this young boy and each day is the same. The film is called “Starting Over.”

New life brings hope

At the end in the credits a tribute is given to Jesus Christ. This implies that the boy in the movie grew up to be the film maker. It is a powerful film about having hope outside of yourself. As a boy there was no hope but hope was found in Jesus Christ.

The second film was made by an atheist (http://www.campfire.net.au/node/201). Hope narrates the story about a man called Jim who has always had hope in his life. Some things that gave him hope where accomplishments, like man landing on the moon, people who fought for freedom, the concord. Jim during his life gave hope to other people. But Jim is dying and now hope is just pure emotion, existing only because of Jim’s hope in hope. In the end hope leaves Jim and fades away as he dies.

Students’ response

One student said he found the films depressing because they seemed hopeless. There is very little in life that is certain, that we can be sure about putting our hope in it. I suggested that death and tax were sure. He countered with ‘change.’ His hope was in change, that life would always change.

Alien wants hope explained

Hope defined

How would you explain hope to an alien? (see diagram of said alien)

• Hope is something that you want but isn’t always certain

• Hope is wanting something that will change your circumstances

• Hope is very close to faith

• Hope is a reason to strive on in a time of adversity

• Hope is something you want to happen

• Hope is something that you believe in; you are hopeful for it to happen, is something to look forward to.

What students hope for/in

• A full life with no major issues, problems/death

• I am hoping for well-being and an end to suffering the world

• More money

• A happy life

• A good, fulfilled life

• Success

• Nothing, things come as they go, take it like it is.

Change and certain hope

I argued with a student that some things never change. An example is that I believe that people are born selfish, they primarily think in terms of how things impact their life and their primary loyalty is to themselves. He countered my argument by pointing out that Jesus was not selfish and I had to agree that he got me there. My question then was what Jesus was trying to do since he wasn’t selfish. The conclusion we came to was that Jesus came to change our hearts so that we might not be captive to our self interest. I continued to argue that the human heart, even liberated by Jesus Christ will still struggle with selfishness.

Pride was another condition of the human heart that does not change. Some of the other students wanted to know what pride was and I explained it was thinking too much of yourself, or thinking too highly of yourself.

Later I was asked why I liked humility. This was a surprise to me because I hadn’t mentioned it in our discussion but it is an excellent question. The reason why I like humility is because it takes us out of ourselves. Not in terms of an outer body experience but by helping us live for someone else other than our self. For example I might give up time and effort to help someone else because I’m prepared to value other people above my ‘self.’ We see this in the example of Christ who was willing to serve rather than to be served.

The trick with hope is to find something or someone who is certain. Even gravity is not certain, it may be very probable but it is not certain to continue indefinitely. When we look at our hopes many depend on what we can do or others can do for us. People who have a religion hope outside of themselves or the world. They place their hope in god. This is something everyone should explore because if true then you find ‘certain hope’ which is far better than ‘maybe hope.’