“It’s best that we not place our hope in a worldly satisfaction because, at the most fundamental level, there isn’t any. Worldly satisfaction can bring temporary pleasure, which is certainly good. But nothing in the material world is deep enough to satisfy the true yearning of our souls. Our greatest hope is for the experience of joy, and often we are not as smart as we think we are when it comes to predicting what would bring us that joy. The mystic hopes not for a particular outcome, then, but for the best outcome for all concerned. And what that is can only be determined by God.
Hope that is attached to a particular outcome is looking for pleasure but fishing for pain, because attachment itself is a source of pain. It is best to hope for an experience of life in all its fullness – a life that can embrace both joy and sorrow and still be at peace, because joy and sorrow are sure to come in this life. Our triumph over sorrow is not that we can avoid it but that we can endure it. And therein lies our hope: that in spirit we might become bigger than the problems we face.”
Marianne Williamson in “Everyday Grace”
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Jeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.
