Find the end of your story

Jim Stockdale was a POW in Vietnam for over seven years. Four of those years he was in solitary confinement. Do you think he had hopes of going home? He did, but HOW he hoped determined if his hope would be fulfilled.

Here’s what Stockdale said in the book Good to Great, about how he hoped:

"I never lost faith in the end of the story…

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."

This hope is more than optimism

Stockdale said the optimistic POW’s DIED. How’s that?

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.

Get it? Picking a date to believe in was just blind wishing and hoping.

True hope does not just make stuff up. True hope does not fantasize.

Here’s how Stockdale puts it:

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.

Hope embraces brutal reality – and still believes

Hope is not in a day, or a person, or an amount, or a place. Hope is in what happens thru those things.

I have hopes for a small, modest property in rural North Carolina where a few people can come and gather for encouragement, and to gain a fresh, life-changing perspective on heaven, earth, and living. The place would also serve the same purposes for our family.

But, if I could have the place without the results, OR, if I could have the results without the place, which would I take? No question – I’d take the results. So my hope is not really in the place; it’s in the purpose of the place. 

That hope you have? Ask yourself ‘Why?’

Your answer to ‘why’ is the end of your story. Put your hope there.

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More of 31+ Days of Scary Hope : encouragement to go from IS to COULD BE. To start at the beginning, clickHERE. To subscribe to automatically receive each day, click HERE. Thanks for reading!

Comments

[Carol H.]

I like how you have continued to tell us about hope! (Beyond the 31 days). Why do I hope? A brilliant (yet simple) question. Thanks.

[Donna]

Thank you. I needed that today. My plans have changed. My retail job scheduled me when I thought I would be off. My heart is with the volunteer event that I thought I would be helping out with.

[elliptical reviews]

No offense, but i suggest admin adding a google+ button for easy share!