I hope………

…..everything gets better.

…..she gets over it.

…..I get a job.

…..I don’t die from a heart attack despite my poor exercise and nutrition.

…..the world changes for the better.

Hope, is not a strategy.

You may or may not know that the years from 1990-1999 were very financially successful in America, and the U.S. stock market performed well. Conversely, the years from 2000-2009 were economically difficult and the U.S. stock market sucked big time. Not long ago I ran into a stock market expert. He is kinda big time. He’s a Certified Financial Planner and has a nationally-syndicated radio program. He manages a very large practice with hundreds of millions of dollars under management. His son has a major league baseball contract. He’s doing well in most areas of his life.

As we did that “talk about the weather and sports thing” that guys do when they run into each other our conversation drifted to our work in the field of finance and he said “Barry, I just hope the next ten years (2011-2020) are like my first ten (1990-1999).” When I asked what he saw on the horizon or in the economy to give him confidence he said “Nothing. I just hope.”

Hope?

Hope??

Is that all you got?

People in Hell HOPE that someone will bring them ice-water.

Hope?????

Many people live their lives in a soap opera version of Fantasyland called Hope. They hope their marriage improves, but they aren’t doing anything to make it better. They hope the economy improves so maybe they’ll get a raise, but they aren’t giving any extra to help their company exceed the competition. They hope their kids turn out all right, but they won’t shut off the TV, talk, listen, and teach. Instead, they sit there and just hope—-as if the world just “does it” to them and they have no control over anything.

Here’s a principle for you: As a man sows, so shall he reap. It doesn’t say “As a man hopes, so shall he reap.” If it did, those folks in Hell would have ice-water.

You are not so weak minded as to believe that hope is an effective strategy for success.

Should you have hope? By all means! And it should rest on a foundation of right thinking, sound decision making, proactive planning, effective habits, and intentional living all bathed in prayer and thoughtfulness. If you’ve got those things happening, then it’s not hope, it’s faith: the evident expectation of a thing not yet seen.