Jean Kerr said, "Hope is the feeling you have, that the feeling you have, isn't
permanent." It is what we have when we know that we WILL eventually survive the
night and bask in sunshine once again. It does not deny the present darkness,
but it reminds us that dawn is coming.
Brigadier General Robinson Risner ("Robbie") spent seven years as a POW at the
"Hanoi Hilton," as prisoners of war called their North Viet Nam compound. There
he discovered the power of hope. He spent four and a half years of that time in
isolation. He endured ten months of total darkness. Those ten months were the
longest of his life. When they boarded up his little seven-by-seven foot cell,
shutting out the light, he wondered if he was going to make it. He had already
been under intense physical and mental duress after years of confinement. And
now, not a glimmer of light shone into his cell -- or into his soul.
Robbie spent hours a day exercising and praying. But at times he felt he could
nothing but scream. Not wanting to give his captors the satisfaction of knowing
they'd broken him, he stuffed clothing into his mouth to muffle the noise as he
screamed at the top of his lungs.
One day Robbie got down on the floor and crawled under his bunk. He located a
vent that let in outside air. As he pressed against the vent, he saw a faint
glimmer of light reflected on the inside wall of the opening. Robbie put his eye
next to the cement wall and discovered a minute crack in the construction. It
allowed him to glimpse outside, but was so small that all he could see was one
blade of grass. A single blade of grass and a faint ray of light. But when he
stared at the sight, he felt a surge of joy, excitement and gratitude like he
hadn't known in years. "It represented life, growth, and freedom," he later
said, "and I knew God had not forgotten me." It was a tiny glimmer hope that
sustained Robbie through an unbearable ordeal.
The human spirit is strong. It seems to run forever on nothing but a morsel of
hope. Without it, you have nothing. With it, nothing else matters.
Steve Goodier © 2004 Life Support
http://www.LifeSupportSystem.com
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