Spiritual Principle a Day for December 18, read by Paul

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December 18

The Courage to Hope

"When we can separate hope from wishing or expectation, it stops feeling like such a setup."

—Living Clean, Chapter 7, “Living Our Principles”

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In the final weekend of the football season, it’s common to hear fans utter a familiar refrain: “It’s the hope that kills you.” Maybe it’s smart to restrain our optimism if winning the championship has been elusive year after year. Football fans know that a bad decision, a lousy play, or rotten luck will crush hopes.

In life, as in football, it might seem that we dare to dream at our peril. Few of us get through life without enduring a heartbreak or two. There may be times when we swear off hope, effectively putting the kibosh on our aspirations. But that’s no way to live. A broken heart has loved, after all.

Yes, hope can lead to disappointment, but it can also usher us to new heights. “Hope is what gets me going in the right direction. It gives me a sense that I can do something to realize my dreams,” one member wrote. “Hope motivates me to persevere, to put in the effort. Hoping but not doing the work? That’s just making a wish.”

Of course, we can move in the right direction and still get caught offside. Our projections about what it takes to achieve a dream aren’t always accurate. Sometimes we get what we’d worked and prayed for only to discover that we were left wanting. Recovery can help us through all of that. We learn to survive our expectations and the emotions attached to them, not do without them. We allow ourselves to feel hope and also to tolerate disappointment or redirection.

Hope is daring to dream, doing the footwork, and landing on our feet. No matter how it pans out, we are stronger, more resilient, even more hopeful for having taken those risks.

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Spiritual Principle:

Recovery gives me the courage to hope. I can take action and exert influence on the world around me. If things don’t work out as I’d hoped—and if my team loses again—I will cope.

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© NA World Services

This podcast is not affiliated with Narcotics Anonymous, and is an independent production of the Works of Wisdom