Hope: It's Not All It's Cracked Up To Be

“Success is as dangerous as failure. Hope is as hollow as fear.” - Lao Tzu

January 27, 2024

I wrote the following post in 2014, as the painful disillusionment of the times forced me to examine the concept of hope. I have since come to acknowledge that perhaps there are two sides to the coin of hope: the toxic and the less-toxic. 

I continue to assert that faith is truer and purer than hope, as hope tends to have expectations associated with it, and although I can myself get entangled in my own expectations, I do my best to avoid them. But we can leave that for another post on disappointment and how to avoid it.

Hope... as hollow as fear...

This post is for those relentlessly lean in to the labor involved in waking up--the labor it requires to take a stand, to play our parts, suit up and show up, despite the reality-weavers pumping bad news - day in and day out - into our hearts, our minds, our homes and leaving people broken-hearted, numb, pissed off, helpless or all of the above.  

This is a salute to those who know we are the ones we're waiting for; who know that there is way more love, that there are way more miracles happening every second of every day, everywhere, than anything else.

This post begins my campaign to put an end to the sickening, life-sucking, action-less action, which terminates even the most earnest of intentions.

Hope is the biggest hoax and single most insidious delusion adapted by the collective human psyche. 

It stands between us, and the actualization of our divine nature and potential.

When it comes to making necessary changes in the way we operate in our lives, or show up in the world, it gives us the false sense that we are doing something, when we are actually doing nothing.

Hope is a lie.  It takes place in our heads, not in our hearts.  It allows for the withholding of trust, while we unwittingly believe that trust is what it is.

If you think about it, hopelessness is more powerful than hope. Because hopelessness is intolerable, it's way more effective at catalyzing us to act.

Although hope effectively numbs the aching heart, it does the same to the mind. 

Faith, on the other hand, is subtle, and far more powerful, even, than belief. Although faith demands we face facts, it also gives the strength we need to carry on.

Faith requires and simultaneously supplies courage.

Hope robs us of courage and renders us impotent, without our even noticing.  

Faith activates trust, and arranges realities in accordance with the Will of Creation. Trust is faith in action.

Hope makes it easy to check out. "Oh, I hope those people are okay." "I hope that war will end." "I hope the economy gets better." "I hope we don't run out of time."

Faith demands presence and keeps us engaged in the process. "I trust that it will become clear what there is for me to do to help those people, if there is for me to do something." "I trust that the leaders of our world will find a way beyond war, and meanwhile, I will continue to stand in solidarity with those effected and with those who are letting it be known that we, as a people, do not support it." "I trust that my economy is the only economy overwhich I have any say, and so I shall continue to make my service contribution to our world with faith that it's making our world into a better place, even if I can't see it." "I trust that as long as I am committed to right action, in this now, that I have all the time I need."

Hope is a black hole. It drains those of us lost in it of the will to collaborate with Creation--of the very impetus to participate in the design of our own lives.

Faith keeps us alive, reaching, growing, serving.  It keeps us connected with all of Creation.

In Spanish the word for hope, esperar, is synonymous with the word 'wait'. We are living in times where we can't afford to wait.

Beware of hope. Toxic hope is doubt, masquerading as faith. 

Originally published September 01, 2014  /  Angelina Frost