The world sometimes feels so dark and full of despair. And yet, even in darkness, hope persists.
Lately, I have found myself feeling anxious and depressed when I read the news. It seems like every day there is some new tragedy happening somewhere in the world. With hard things all around us, it’s easy to believe things will never get better. But through the darkness and despair, there is one thing that can sustain us: hope.
In her talk “Raised in Hope,” Sister Chieko N. Okazaki speaks powerfully about how hope is the beginning step that can raise us from despair to peace and joy. We are surrounded by voices that tell us to give up or to give in to the despair we may feel. But Sister Okazaki tells us that hope is a choice. She says, “To choose hope is to choose life. To choose hope is to choose love.”
We can give in to our despair, or we can choose to turn to Christ. He is the source of life and our ultimate source of hope. Through Christ, our hope can become a promise of future joy. Sister Okazaki goes on to say that “the sources of hope are the sources of life itself. That’s why hope persists, even when experience, reason, and knowledge all say there is no reason to hope.”
I don’t know if the world will change anytime soon, but I do know that through Christ I have the capacity to choose hope, life, and joy. Christ is the embodiment of my intangible hope. I don’t have to give in to despair—I can choose to learn, inspire, love, and hope. In spite of darkness, pain, grief, and sorrow, through Christ hope persists.
Read Sister Chieko N. Okazaki’s full talk “Raised in Hope” to discover how choosing hope can bless your life and bring you peace and joy.
Source: General Conference
—Abby Carr, Latter-day Saint Insights
FEATURE IMAGE BY NACHO JUÁREZ
Find more insights
Read Ashlyn Pell’s article “When Words Fail, Hope Lives” on Latter-day Saint Insights to learn how hope can prevail through Christ in times of grief and despair.
Discover how hope can be a divine promise of blessings yet to come in Heather White’s Latter-day Saint Insights article “Hope: A Journey to Faith.”