Hope Springs Eternal

The phrase, “hope springs eternal” is supposed to convey the idea that no matter how often hope gets beaten down, it springs right back up, not just once or twice, but an eternal amount of times. But as I was thinking about this phrase, I imagined an actual spring, like an elastic coil of twisted wire, and that hope was this spring that anchored our souls to the Eternal. “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.” (Ether 12:4). This world will do its best to drag us down into the gulf of misery and endless woe. It will do its best to confuse and disorient us, make us doubt, make us fear, make us despair. We may even willingly grab onto the nihilism that is dragging us down with both hands and refuse to let go. But hope springs eternal. Whether we expect it or not, whether we look for it or not, whether we want it or not, the great spring of hope will only stretch so far before it recoils from the darkness and the doubts and the despair and lifts our souls back up to the Eternal. There is nothing we can do, no sin we can commit, no betrayal we can enact, no war we can wage that will sever the great spring of hope that tethers our souls to our Eternal Father. We may have entered into the very gates of Hell, and as the sign says, we may even have abandoned all hope, but hope will not abandon us. We can stretch that spring until it is nearly a single straight wire, but it will not break, and it will not let go of us. Hope springs eternal because we ourselves are eternal. We may have forgotten what eternity looks like, what it feels like, but hope remembers the eternity from whence we came and anticipates the eternity to which our souls will return. Any illness, any weakness, any frailty or disfigurement or disillusionment or disaster or despair can only last at most for the duration of our time-bound, mortal experience. That is why hope is always able to pull us back up from whatever depths we sink, because as bad as it is, it will not last for all eternity, but hope will, and we will. If it seems an eternity already since we last felt the mighty tug of hope pullings us up from the murky depths, let’s hold onto hope, for hope surely is holding onto us and will not, cannot let go.