Aragorn: “Give me your sword. What is your name?”

Haleth: “Haleth son of Hama my lord. The men are saying we will not live out the night they are saying it is hopeless.”

Aragorn: “This is a good sword, Haleth son of Hama…There is always hope”

There is always hope 

I love this scene from the Two Towers (and pretty much every scene from the Lord of the Rings). A boy, Haleth, full of doubt and fear does not get consoled by Aragorn, neither does he receive empty words. Aragorn acknowledges that the battle is here, and he does not say they will live through the night. He does not promise victory, and he does not minimize the situation, he simply offers an endearment: There is always hope. 

This is a loaded phrase at this moment, for death is certain for some, if not all, of their people in this battle. Aragorn does not offer up promises that he cannot keep, he does not even try to dismiss the boy’s fear, he only offers what is true.

Hope is perseverance. Hope is strength. Hope brings valor. Hope brings courage. Hope drives compassion. Hope sees the world for more than face value.

I would best describe hope as a momentum. It is much bigger than a longing for better stuff, or better circumstances; it is a way to live that allows us to move in the flow of this life, though longing for things to get better is a part of it.

Hope reminds us that we play a part in this story

How do we continue to move forward in our lives when darkness comes? We believe that the light will shine again, for even in darkness the light shines.

“Yet dawn is ever the hope of men.” – Aragorn (The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien)

Though the light may be dim, we embrace it, and if we must linger in the dark, we do not lose heart. We stand in the belief that something of worth is taking place and we know that our part of this story is not over, we will find new strength.

“Hope is not blind optimism. It’s not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It’s not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. Hope is the belief that destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by the men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be.” – Barak Obama