A Chance Iām Willing To Take
I recently re-watched The Fault In Our Stars, and without going so much into the plot, Iād like to just highlight a scene. Hazel, the female protagonist living with lungs that can barely function, struggles to reach the top of the Anne Frank House because of risk of over exerting her lungs. There is pain and discomfort in her eyes, as she takes every breath to reach the attic. There is no telling how much further she could go climbing and carrying her personal oxygen tank. Yet, she hoped that she could keep going even when, she could've died right there, right then.
She was being wreckless. Let me go further in saying:
Hope is a childish idea. Yeah, you read that right. It is.
Stupid. Decisions in life usually have several outcomes, and each has their own probability or chance, of happening. Hope makes us choose the least probable outcome, and believing in it wholeheartedly. What?! Any practical person would go with the one with the highest favorable outcome to us. There are times when we try to be heroic and choose those, but is hope just a formal way of saying āidiotā?
Needy. Hoping for better grades, hoping for forgiveness from friends, or hoping for a brand new phone - hope asks. When we hope, it just makes us give up, and makes up just ask for things. Anyone in their right mind would just go get it themselves. Why let go of the control?
Annoying. We hope when we are uncertain in our decisions, as we are tainted by the mysterious void of - the future. We ask questions a lot, and we try to get information from a lot of people. We would be annoyed if someone just kept coming to us, and asked us questions about how their decision went.
All these qualities seem unattractive to members of society. But, Iām gonna tell you that the Lord loves you for it.
āWhen there is hope - there is LIFE.ā Anne Frank, The Fault In Our Stars (2014)
There IS life in hope. If we look at it from the Lordās perspective:
Youāre not stupid, my child. You are living life by taking chances. He has given us this life to live to the fullest. He even sacrificed himself, so that we can have the gift of eternal life! He knew that heād be persecuted, and he knew that one would betray Him, yet He believed in the slightest chance that God would change it. Itās crazy cos He lost his life doing it, but in turn saved countless others after Him - isnāt that a life worth living? Sure, āthe brave may not live forever, but the cautious donāt live at all.ā
You are not needy, my child. You are humble to ask. We give up our control for the things uncertain, because it is uncontrollable. Our actions can only take us so far, but at the end of it all, the outcome is all up to chances. The Lord guides us in our journey, and says āask and you will receive.ā When we give up ourselves and let Him takeover, we donāt admit weakness - we admit humility. That we canāt do it by ourselves, and we need help.
You are not annoying, my child. You listen to my Words. Because of uncertainty, we become a speedy sponge, trying to absorb much information as we can. Trying to get the most updated information we can to lessen uncertainty. This does not makes us annoying, but because of asking.. it makes us listen and understand what others are saying. It allows us to get the other side of things from people. God works through everyone, and in moments like these, He ācommands his Angels to protect you wherever you go.ā We could literally, be ātouched by an Angelā lessing our uncertainty.
āTruly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.ā Mark 10:15
Hope allows us to take chances, to be humble and listen.. like children. Children are the epitome of life, of new life - a generation anew. When we hope, it is as if we are transformed into children again. Unaware, unhinged and unsure. Yet, it is this exact feeling that the Lord tells us that makes us worthy for the kingdom of God.
Growing up, we canāt always say we have things figured out, planned or prepared for. There are a lot of things that we get disappointed by about that destroys our idea of hope. Every time it happens, we slowly come to terms with ourselves saying, āNo, we canāt. It's impossible.ā The childish idea of hope however, gives us the reason to believe in impossibilities. Even if there is just no chance at all, like a child, we just have to hope and know that āGod will provide.ā
And thatās a chance Iām willing to take.
Jealdrin Madrid (August 2015)