That sounds to me like the sort of thing Christians are taught to say without thinking, because when you think about what it means it doesn't make any sense.
The definition of hope is a desire with the expectation of fulfillment. Put simply, it is the anticipation of something you don't yet have. So it makes no sense at all to claim that with hope you have everything, when in fact in order to have hope you must lack the thing you hope for.
It appears that equating hope with having everything is some sort of Orwellian doublespeak that authoritarian institutions (governments and churches) use to emotionally rationalize the need for their authority. The message of hope is one that says, "You don't have what you want yet, but if you do what we tell you then you will get everything you desire."
Doesn't it sound at least a little suspicious when you put it that way?`And isn't that exactly what "they" are telling you when they say hope is everything? And most shockingly, isn't that the exact opposite of what Jesus Himself purportedly died on a cross in order to teach us? (Jesus was a teacher and a messenger, wasn't he? So shouldn't his message and lessons be more important than his being?)
When I read the Bible the message of unconditional love that Jesus preached (and demonstrated) seems like the opposite of hope. He insisted over and over that we already have God's unconditional love (and forgiveness, which goes hand-in-hand). So, we have no more we need to hope for? Isn't that the core of his message, that we already have everything that matters, and the only thing that matters? Did he not insist that we should not look here, or there, for heaven (i.e. God's Love), because it already exists within us?
And doesn't the Christian "message of hope" in effect circumvent the very "message of Love" that Jesus preached?
You tell me. is there some flaw in my reasoning, some blindness to my insight that I am missing? I try to remain open to such errors, so tell me where I am mistaken and I will consider it carefully. But, I will not accept some emotionally charged oxymoronic doublespeak as "logic", when it is anything but; especially when it contradicts the One True Authority given to each and every living thing to think and be for themselves, but not by themselves; to be happy, loved, and alive, right here, and right now, with no need for desire, or "hope" at all.
It appears that equating hope with having everything is some sort of Orwellian doublespeak that authoritarian institutions (governments and churches) use to emotionally rationalize the need for their authority. The message of hope is one that says, "You don't have what you want yet, but if you do what we tell you then you will get everything you desire."
Doesn't it sound at least a little suspicious when you put it that way?`And isn't that exactly what "they" are telling you when they say hope is everything? And most shockingly, isn't that the exact opposite of what Jesus Himself purportedly died on a cross in order to teach us? (Jesus was a teacher and a messenger, wasn't he? So shouldn't his message and lessons be more important than his being?)
When I read the Bible the message of unconditional love that Jesus preached (and demonstrated) seems like the opposite of hope. He insisted over and over that we already have God's unconditional love (and forgiveness, which goes hand-in-hand). So, we have no more we need to hope for? Isn't that the core of his message, that we already have everything that matters, and the only thing that matters? Did he not insist that we should not look here, or there, for heaven (i.e. God's Love), because it already exists within us?
And doesn't the Christian "message of hope" in effect circumvent the very "message of Love" that Jesus preached?
You tell me. is there some flaw in my reasoning, some blindness to my insight that I am missing? I try to remain open to such errors, so tell me where I am mistaken and I will consider it carefully. But, I will not accept some emotionally charged oxymoronic doublespeak as "logic", when it is anything but; especially when it contradicts the One True Authority given to each and every living thing to think and be for themselves, but not by themselves; to be happy, loved, and alive, right here, and right now, with no need for desire, or "hope" at all.
