Sometimes the Bravest Thing

My soul waits for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
    for with the Lord is unfailing love
    and with him is full redemption.

I've had this blog for a couple weeks now and no one has bothered to ask where my title or domain name came from. I think it would be too much to hope that more than a few of you actually know without asking, it's a little obscure. Well, "The Bravest thing of all is always hope" so says the Brave Saint Saturn song "Binary". It's also mentioned in "Atropos" and "Daylight." If you've looked at the link to my blog you'll notice that the domain name is "Always just beneath the dawn". That is from the Brave Saint Saturn song of the same name, the full thought is "I believe that love is greater; never ceasing, always hoping, always just beneath the dawn."

If you're following my reasoning and if you happen to maybe know my first middle name you'll see a theme: Hope. It took me a surprisingly long time to connect my middle name to any aspect of my life, as I mentioned before: I'm a bit of a pessimist. But eventually I hit a point where I decided I was tired of pessimistic depressing views dominating how I looked at life. Right there was my middle name, patiently waiting for me just like hope always does.

"Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face."

In that way hope goes along hand in hand with love. "It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." They're specifically listed together along with that other thing that gives you the ability to hope in love: "and now these three remain: faith, hope and love." The funny thing is, hope is in the definition of both words. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." It's obviously a pretty important thing.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Many times we're pretty much directly commanded to hope. "Why are you downcast, O my soul?... Put your hope in God for I will yet praise him." Basically, cheer up, or as possibly my favorite verse says "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer". Hope is such an important part of faith. If your attitude is just "Yeah, I have faith in God" but you don't look to him for anything or trust him for anything you're acing the belief part of faith but missing the hope. It isn't just faith and it isn't just patience, it's both things and more.

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?

In this blog I've managed to get a basic Biblical idea of hope in first, unlike my joy blog. I still don't have as much of a grasp of it as I would like or I would go on more, I don't want to go on and on about it if I'm not sure about it. However, there is a specific reason I'm bringing it up this time.

I saw the Dark Knight Rises in theaters about four times. The only movie I saw in theaters more times was The Avengers. (Which does really feature in this blog. Maybe I'll work up a blog involving that one later.) I also saw The Hunger Games when it came out, honestly the first time I saw it I was so disturbed I didn't want to see it or think about it again. A few weeks ago I was bored and wanted distraction from my looming college classes so I watched the DVD. It was then that I noticed an interesting similarity between The Dark Knight Rises and the Hunger Games.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

The villains were the similarity. In personality, strategy and just all around evilness Bane and President Snow don't have too much in common. Bane is all about supposedly letting the people rule and Snow is all about ruling the people. However, they both have a monologue (both fairly important to the plot as well) about using hope as a weapon. Through the wonders of the internet I have both available for you right here so you don't have to see how well you remember the dialogue from the two movies.


President Snow gives this reason for why he has the Hunger Games every year rather than just executing 24 innocent children:
Hope, it is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective, a lot of hope is dangerous. A spark is fine, as long as it's contained. 


Very morbid and evil but compared to Bane's description of hope this is almost healthy.

Home, where I learned the truth about despair, as will you. There's a reason why this prison is the worst hell on earth...hope. Every man who has ventured here over the centuries has looked up to the light and imagined climbing to freedom. So easy...so simple...and like shipwrecked men turning to sea water from uncontrollable thirst, many have died trying. I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope. So, as I terrorize Gotham, I will feed its people hope to poison their souls. I will let them believe they can survive so that you can watch them clamoring over each other to 'stay in the sun.'

I thought it was downright scary that two of the biggest movies of the year revolved around the same villainous plot point; using hope as a weapon against the masses. At least Loki had a different tactic, the philosophical debate about freedom and peace. But hope is a little close to home I mean after all, don't politicians apparently make their way in life by making promises and building our hopes up and then not actually following through on anything? That's what the media says about them anyway.

But that is the confusing thing about hope. A lot of the time it seems like it would just be easier to not get your hopes up and not have to deal with dashed hopes. I at least find that movies are more fun if I lower my expectations before I go see a new movie. I'm avoiding way too many more movie quotes in here than I already have planned but the TV show Monk had a very good line about hopes. Sharona asked Monk if he had to get his hopes up, Monk answered "Of course, that's what hopes are for."

What is the resolution to this dilemma of unfulfilled hopes? For some more positive quotes about hope not directly from the Bible I went to a fairly foolproof source. Any guesses?

“Being a cheerful hobbit, he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed."


Here you go, a series of quotes about hope from J.R.R. Tolkien himself:

“His face was sad and stern because of the doom that was laid on him, and yet hope dwelt ever in the depths of his heart, from which mirth would arise at times like a spring from a rock.” 

"The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” 

“I do not know what is happening. The reason of my waking mind tells me that great evil has befallen and we stand at the end of days. But my heart says nay; and all my limbs are light, and a hope and joy are come to me that no reason can deny.  I do not believe that darkness will endure!” 

“Despair, or folly?’ said Gandalf. ‘It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope. Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy!” 

“False hopes are more dangerous than fears.


That's pretty comprehensive. Just pure hope, unexplained hope, endurance beyond hope (or the Elvish term, Bronwe athan Harthad), and despair versus hope. But I think that last one answers the question about whether we should get our hopes up and how hope can be a good thing even if people try to misuse it. The difference is the kind of hope: false hope rather than a hope that comes from God. If you set your hopes on worldly things and your own ideas of how things will work out you're bound to be disappointed all the time. But if you set your hope on Godly things and what he wants for your life you'll find that those hopes are fulfilled and surpassed beyond your wildest dreams, even when it doesn't seem like it.

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed."


"It hurts just to wake up
whenever you're wearing thin,
alone on the outside
so tired of looking in.
The end is uncertain
and I've never been so afraid
but I don't need a telescope
to see that there's Hope
and that makes me feel brave."