Editorial July 28, 1973 Issue

Spiritual Grounds for Hopefulness

Geoffrey J. Barratt

Hopefulness is generally considered to be a good trait. The spiritual insights of Christian Science, disclosing God's absolute control of His man and universe, give solid ground for it. Those who are hopeful without a spiritual rationale have a quality that is too easily reversed by changed external conditions.

It's desirable for us all to check up on our attitudes now and then to determine whether or not our tone of thought is hopeful or pessimistic. And if the former, then to be sure it's based on a definite awareness of the spiritual facts of being, and is not just an accident of personality, as hopefulness may sometimes seem to be.

Basing hopefulness on spiritual values in a world of so many intricate material problems doesn't imply foolishness or flippancy. To be sure, there are threats that we should be aware of—overpopulation, pollution, rising prices, unemployment, the menaces of war. But a helpless expectation of these may tend, in human belief, to produce them. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, and we should be well informed about society's problems. But we can bring to them a spiritually-founded hopefulness rather than pessimism. Pressing challenges don't have to be depressing challenges.

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