Viktor Frankl in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, recounts how hope for the future was the single most important factor in determining whether his fellow prisoners survived the Nazi concentration camps in World War II. He wrote, “The prisoner who had lost faith in the future - his future - was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold. He let himself decline and become subject to mental and physical decay.” 

Frankl, who helped millions value hope after he was released from the concentration camps, had at the core of his therapy this truth: human beings are driven by their views of their own future. The more positive the future is seen, the more power and purpose there will be for the present. 

“Without a vision the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). A lack of clear purpose for the future will not only drain us of energy now, but will actually shorten our lives. During the American revolution, the average life span was less than forty years, but most of our nation’s founding fathers lived at least twenty years longer. It would seem their vision to create a great nation literally gave them life. 

Frankl had a “why” to live for while as a prisoner. His why was he wanted to see his family again, and he wanted to write his book. This vision caused him to endure intense suffering by seeing it as something that would make him stronger for his future. 

When we don’t have a why to live for, we are reduced to trying to protect what we have, focus on the past, and will only change to avoid pain. Our purpose will be reduced to trying not lose what we have left (trying not not to move backward in life). This is Gideon’s mindset in Judges 6 when an angel told him while he was in a winepress hiding and threshing wheat, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior” (Judges 6:12). His why was survival, not to try and make things better. When we lose hope, we stop investing and improving. 

Hope is the belief that the future will be better than the present and we have the power to help make it so. When we don’t have this strong vision and purpose for the future, we will live from our past instead of our future. Our thinking will fixate on the past (regrets, good old days, if only, etc.), and, as a result, we will adopt a victim mindset and be without vitality in the present. 

“One thing I do: forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things that are ahead” (Philippians 3:13). There are those things for all of us to reach forward to. Clarifying what “those things” are is a main part of living in hope. 

Why are you alive? What difference do you want to make in the future? What problem do you want to fix? What strength do you want to bring to your family or society? 

I recently wrote a blog called “Decide and He Will Provide” that speaks into this. I spoke of how an ordinary person with a “secular” job named Nehemiah decided to fix the walls in Jerusalem that were broken down. Once he decided, all of heaven got behind him in provision. He said, “I am going to do something about that!” We too will have heaven’s resource manifest when we decide to fix and improve things like: 

• Disconnection in our family
• Homelessness
• A lack of joy and hope in God’s people (I’ve specifically chosen that one)
• Racial divisions

Once we get hope for the future (having a purpose and the belief we can make a difference), we will be amazed at the multiple options we will see for reaching our goals. In his book, Be Your Future Self Now, Dr. Benjamin Hardy quotes Dr. Charles Snyder, whom Hardy says is the world’s leading expert and researcher on hope. Snyder says, “High hope people find multiple pathways to reach their goals and willingly try new approaches to do so. Low hope people, on the other hand, stick with one approach and do not try other avenues. If stymied, Instead of using problem-focused thoughts, the low hope people often use counterproductive avoidance and disengagement thinking. Reinforced in the short-term by their avoidance thoughts, low hope people will continue their passivity. Unfortunately they do not learn from past experiences. High hope people, however, use information about not reaching their goals as diagnostic feedback to search for other feasible approaches.”

High hope people create a way because to have hope, you either see a way to realize your goal or are flexible enough to create a way. When hope exists, there is always a way. There are no hopeless situations, just people who do not have hope. There is always a solution. Hope does not consider how bad the odds look for success but believes a difference can be made.

Napoleon said, “Leaders are brokers of hope”. The difference between a leader and a manager is that the leader focuses on why the organization or group exists, while the manager focuses on efficiency. We need efficiency, but even that will break down without hope. 

Viktor Frankl had understanding of the power of hope before he became a prisoner, but his hope was tested in the fire of adversity and therefore what he says carries much weight. He said, “Human beings are driven by their views of their own future”. Whatever battles you and I are having right now, they are almost certainly not nearly as hopeless than what he faced. Let’s value hope like never before; those in our future will be glad we did.