A woman called hope

She has a smile like the morning sun. No darkness however thick and no blackness however pitch can override her radiance. If you cling to her for dear life no situation however threatening shall overpower you. Hope will flash her beautiful beam into that despairing heart and flush out that groom and doom, giving you the strength to keep moving and believing till you break through.

The smile of hope cannot be erased by circumstances

Once lived a very influential man in the East whose generosity, integrity and pursuit of purity made God to brag about him. Then tragedy struck. The man lost his thousands and hundreds of sheep, donkeys, camels, oxen, and his seven children through natural disasters. He was also struck by repugnant blisters that made every part of his body to ooze pus.

The man's three best friends came ostensibly to console him but taunted him instead; attributing his suffering to "secret sins". Day and night they harassed him to repent. His wife stopped believing in the light at the end of the long dark tunnel and advised her suffering hubby to curse God and die.

But this man had an ever-flowing fountain of hope in his big heart through which he bubbled: "Thou God slay me yet will I trust Him." It was the voice of defiance reminding affliction that being down is not being out. It was the voice of optimism that should keep resounding in the minds of those who want to make it in life.

People who turn to the bottle completely or commit suicide have forgotten that every hole in the heart can be filled; that no suffering is permanent as the story of our wealthy man from the East proved. He was absolved of any secret sins and rewarded with double for his trouble. No matter what you are going through, your best days are ahead. Be patient in tribulation, pray relentlessly, cope with hope and you will have the last laugh.