Hope

Ryan Holiday in his TED Talk ‘Stoic Optimism’ tells of reading Emperor Marcus Aurellius book written in 170 AD, in it we find this sentiment ‘our actions maybe impeded but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions.’ Because we accommodate and adapt, the mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. But here comes the maxim ‘the impediment to action advances the action what stands in the way becomes the way.’ Holiday says ‘In other words we don’t control what happens to us, we only control how we respond to what happens to us and every situation no matter how seemingly negative it feels at first, we always retain the capacity to practice stoic optimism.’ But I would prefer the word hope to be used whenever we encounter a seemingly negative situation. When a Stoic talked about the will of God, he meant nothing more than submission to the unavoidable fatalism of an impersonal, uncaring, unknowing, and unloving Nature. But when Christians talk about accepting the will of God, they mean the chosen plan of a loving, knowing, personal God. Paul says it best I glory in suffering for suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character and character hope. Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church

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