The Beauty and Power of Hope

[306 words] Viktor E. Frankl is one of those rare and special individuals who survived Hitler’s concentration camps. He went on to become a well-respected psychiatrist in his time after the war. Frankl dedicated his life’s work to exploring and sharing the necessity and influence of meaning and hope. Frankl observed that the people who survived the concentration camps during the Holocaust were the ones who found the strongest will to live by finding meaning. He surmised that a driving force in motivating people to continue on in the face of suffering was finding meaning and keeping hope alive. Once they lost hope, their time was short. He wrote, “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how.’” These thoughts from the not-too-distant past helpfully remind us about eternal truth revealed in Scripture. Because Jesus is our hope (1 Tim. 1:1), we can rightfully long for…