Audacity of Hope

I'm beginning to try to change my 'reading' habit, other than the Bible or the stuffs I'm real interested in, I rarely read. So as encouraged by the wife, I picked up a few books. I'm starting out with Obama's 'Audacity of Hope'.

Obama has lost focus in his life once. His wife thought he has lost his sense of priority so she didn't really want him in public office anymore. He has even been crushed badly by losing an election. After regrouping refocusing on what's important, he's still hopeful with his message of hope in the cynical world of politics. He asked his wife for one last chance to give his politcal career a shot...and afterwards, he'll just resume a 'normal' life.

His campaigne wasn't easy. He had numerous oppositions... and with popular incumbents and millionaire candidates with loads of money. Not sure where he found the 'hope'. Perhaps it was his last chance as promised to his wife? In the end, he won the US Senate office. Some see it as fluke, because lots of scandals caused many of the popular candidates to drop out. Obama thought it was his message of hope... and the fact that he's running for president now perhaps confirmed that he's right! How lucky can a person be? To be elected senator in 2004 and then to run for president in 2008?!?!? ;)

Mathematicians or anyone with some sort of a brain can figure out the risks involved in doing something. Low risk means high chance of success, but success is still not guaranteed. High risk means low chance of success, and again failure is not guaranteed. Should we live our lives by calculating risks... or should we live our lives by hoping?

It's difficult to conclude for certain which is right. We can't really blame people for not wanting to do high risk things. If it has a good chance to fail, why bother? We most definitely shouldn't just deny that reality and 'hope' for the best. But we can certainly slowly and hopefully move in that direction.

When I was young, I hoped to achieve 4.0 GPA. I hoped to win drawing competitions. I hoped to win swimming competitions. I hoped to win scholarship to Art Center! I hoped to be the first Chinese world champion F-1 driver!!! ;)

Well, I did win some swimming competitions against high schools that don't have very good swimmers. ;) Other than that, all of my hopes above were crushed.

However, some of my hopes came true. I remembered that I hoped I could come and live in America so I can goto Disneyland and stuffs... that was back in elementry... and some of my classmates were planning to immigrate there... and the process takes years. I knew chances of me ever moving to America is slim, but I hoped for it nonetheless.

After I'm in America, when I'm in high school, getting ready for a license, I hoped to be able to have a brown VW Rabbit convertible. Of course it's not affordable for my parents, we only owned a Corolla back then..., but then eventually I did get a gold Civic... in all honesty, I think it's much better and reliable than VW. And who thought I'd actually end up getting an S2000? For sure that's a much better convertible than the Rabbit! ;)

Seeing that most of my relatives and friends live in their own home. I also hoped I could live in a nice house with mom and dad... instead of just renting at lame pathetic places or just apartments..., but knowing my parent's income level, I know that's an impossibility. But I hoped for that nonetheless. And amazingly, we were able to afford a home when the market is rock bottom!!!

I didn't even know God back then. But to me, it's so absolutely true that God prepares for me things that's better than I've seen, heard or thought of. In instances where God say 'no' to my hopes, I can see that it's probably good for me. If I had good grades all the time, I'd probably end up too proud. If I actually end up as an design artist, how will that alter my lifestyle? If I actually became an F-1 driver, I'd probably be dead by now! ;)

If God is willing to even give His Son for us, why else would He hold things back from us that's good for us?

Today's scripture reading is about Paul's talk of spiritual growth. In it, Paul talked about rejoicing always... about putting away non-holy living practices... about shining as stars in this dark world:

Philippians 2
14Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.(NIV)

Unfortunately, the chinese translation doesn't have 'stars', otherwise it'd be a good fit with Howards new song! ;)