Hope or Faith?

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as this glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! Today is going to be a special day…I have faith, believe, and declare it to be so!!!

I have been thinking a lot about the Stockdale Paradox, faith, and hope a lot this past week. The first thing I want to share with you is an excerpt from a concept paper written by Jim Collins on jimcollins.com. You can read the entire concept, as well as the accompanying Face the Brutal Facts concept, at https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/Stockdale-Concept.html

“The name refers to Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was the highest-ranking United States military officer in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner-of-war camp during the height of the Vietnam War. Tortured over twenty times during his eight-year imprisonment from 1965 to 1973, Stockdale lived out the war without any prisoner’s rights, no set release date, and no certainty as to whether he would even survive to see his family again. …

You can understand, then, my anticipation at the prospect of spending part of an afternoon with Stockdale. One of my students had written his paper on Stockdale, who happened to be a senior research fellow studying the Stoic philosophers at the Hoover Institution right across the street from my office, and Stockdale invited the two of us for lunch. In preparation, I read In Love and War, the book Stockdale and his wife had written in alternating chapters, chronicling their experiences during those eight years.

As I moved through the book, I found myself getting depressed. It just seemed so bleak—the uncertainty of his fate, the brutality of his captors, and so forth. And then, it dawned on me: “Here I am sitting in my warm and comfortable office, looking out over the beautiful Stanford campus on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I’m getting depressed reading this, and I know the end of the story! I know that he gets out, reunites with his family, becomes a national hero, and gets to spend the later years of his life studying philosophy on this same beautiful campus. If it feels depressing for me, how on earth did he deal with it when he was actually there and did not know the end of the story?”

“I never lost faith in the end of the story,” he said, when I asked him. “I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

I didn’t say anything for many minutes, and we continued the slow walk toward the faculty club, Stockdale limping and arc-swinging his stiff leg that had never fully recovered from repeated torture. Finally, after about a hundred meters of silence, I asked, “Who didn’t make it out?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “The optimists.”

“The optimists? I don’t understand,” I said, now completely confused, given what he’d said a hundred meters earlier.

“The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

Another long pause, and more walking. Then he turned to me and said, “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

To this day, I carry a mental image of Stockdale admonishing the optimists: “We’re not getting out by Christmas; deal with it!””

Before sharing my thoughts and what has been challenging me this week, I also want to share another little nugget. I simply Googled “What is the difference between hope and faith?” and the following popped up – I do not know who to attribute this to, however know that it did not come from me!

“The difference between hope and faith can be summarized as follows:

Faith is our unwavering belief in something greater than ourselves, characterized by certainty and trust.

Hope is an optimistic attitude or mindset that good things are possible in the future, characterized by perception and possibility.

Faith is the foundation upon which hope is built.”

Perhaps it is confirmation bias, however this explanation lined up 100% with what I was thinking I would find. And the thing that was bothering/challenging me all week? Am I living a life of faith or a life of hope? How about you?

Admiral Stockdale made it very clear; the ones who didn’t make it were the optimists, those who relied on hope. Conversely, those who did make it had faith that in the end they would prevail. Look at the above; “faith is our unwavering belief,” while “hope is an optimistic attitude.”

As I have pondered this repeatedly, I have determined that I want to commit to living a faith-filled life, not a hope-filled life.

1.      It is a daily choice as to who or what I am going to place my faith in. I am going to intentionally choose to place my faith in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” I am not simply hoping, I have faith. I have faith that He never leaves me or forsakes me, that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him, and are called according to His purposes, and that when I cast my cares upon Him, He will give me a peace that goes beyond all understanding…just to name a few.

2.     I will live my faith, not sit, and hope. James 2:14 – 26 says,

“14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[a]? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[b] and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

This is what I believe has been bothering me. It is somewhat easy to profess faith with the mouth, however am I living my faith? How about you?

Hope or faith? For me there is a significant difference between the two. With God’s help, I will live a faith-filled life every day for the rest of my life. And at this exact moment I am reminded of the quote often attributed to Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.”

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious family, and please stay well!

Kev