Alexander Pope wrote: “Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to be blessed.” But where does man turn when hope dries up? The director of a medical clinic told of a young man who was terminally ill, arriving for his usual treatment and encountering a new doctor, who said to him quite casually and insensitively: ‘You know, don’t you, that you won’t live out the year?’As that young man left, he stopped by the director’s desk and wept. ‘That man took away my hope,’ he said. The director put his arm around his shoulder and said: ‘Maybe it’s time to find a new one.’
Clare Booth Luce said: ‘There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.’ And for people of faith, even when facing death, hope of eternal life is the anchor that holds them secure.