Love, Foregiveness, Faith, and Hope

To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
G. K. Chesterton

It is easy to love something that is loveable. It is easy to forgive minor slights. It is easy to beleive what makes sense to us. And it is easy to hope when life is going your way. But our lives were not meant to be easy. We were meant to learn and grow, and as much as we don't like it, to learn and grow means to encounter obstacles, problems, and difficulties. An easy life is a boring life, and ultimately one full of fear.

Can you love the unlovable, foregive the unforegivable, beleive the unbeleivable, or hope when everything seems hopeless? This is the true test of character, of faith, motivation, and success.

Remember the times when you needed love and foregiveness the most. It was of course at those times when you were at your most unloveable and unforgivable. Is it fair to deny your love and foregiveness to other people at the time when they need it most? It is likewise when everything seems hopeless that you, and others, need hope the most. It is when good things seem impossible that you need faith the most. The time to give is the time when whatever you have to give is needed the most. But those times are the ones when it is the most difficult for us to give.

Practise loving more and more unloveable things; and forgiving more and more unforgivable acts (this does not mean you have to approve of them, but you need to distance yourself from them emotionally). Practise faith and hope when you are more and more unsure that anything good will come from the situation you find yourself in. In this way, you refine and strengthen your character, and that will increase your success.