“Hope” looks to the future, however, it is also a present experience. It has real benefits for life now. Viktor Frankl was psychotherapist who survived the horrors of Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. From his observations of fellow prisoners, he concluded that when facing extreme circumstances, people are forced to choose between despair and hope and that this is literally a life-or-death decision…

I have a small triangle of grass outside my house that I mow each week. The edges are neatly trimmed. It has no weeds. The same can’t be said for the rest of the Church grounds (they’re really not that bad), but I do have this one small patch where I maintain order in the midst of chaos. When I’m finished, I just stand there for a while, admiring what I’ve done, and feeling good.