We like to have good things to anticipate and having a healthy mind depends on it. No one likes a cynic or someone who loses hope for a good future. We use the words faith and hope interchangeably at times and so a little clarification is in order. The object of both is what we call “fortune”.

Fortune is a general word we use for expectations being met. The variations are: good fortune, fortunate, unfortunate and misfortune. Fortune tellers make a living trying to show people which one they will get. Every person has desires that vary toward different objects and when we get the desire of our heart it is considered good fortune. Of course justice is a part of it. Getting our desires rightly is important since injustices can haunt us and dilute pure enjoyment. People with a strong sense of justice have a harder time with it while there are those who can burn others without a care.

Hope is looking forward to a desire being fulfilled. When we lose hope, we try to kill the desire by thinking it is impossible, foolishness and futile. Faith is the object we depend on to bring our hopes to us in a just way. It is what we trust in to make our dreams come true.  We use faith all the time. It is synonymous with confidence.  People can put confidence in different things; gods, societies and themselves. We start by having confidence in ourselves and when things don’t go as we expected, we try to excuse the injustices away somehow by blaming it on a third party.

Religions use the terms blessed and cursed; good karma and bad; but they mean the same thing. When things don’t go well whether it comes from individuals or circumstances, there has to be a third party that brings it back to justice. They might say that bad things happen because we did something wrong in a past life since we haven’t done anything wrong in this one. Maybe we made God mad in some way such as a past offense. It might  be that good things might come to us because we did something right that pleased God or karma. But we have to admit that bad people do get good things and good people get bad so life seems unfair. We also apply these ideas toward the future and if we don’t get what is just, good or bad in this life, maybe we will pay in the next life be it heaven or on the earth. Religions expand on this and add actions we can do to insure that all injustices are paid for so good fortune is guaranteed to come to us both in this life and the next. Some capitalize on it further and get people convinced that by giving to them, a person will receive a blessing. But this is an infinite progression that has no starting point or end. What is sufficient and what is excessive? We wrestle with this within ourselves sometimes trying to compensate for our past and create hope for the future.

Having a rational mind is a gift from God. It is where we make the highest connection with him and with each other. The reality is that we can’t undo the past. We can make plans for the future but never really know what will happen. The best thing to pray for is wisdom. There is an arena we access when our mind is settled without the noise of pressing needs and injustices. Our creativity meets his. We have the greatest ideas when we are at peace. Instead of asking for things to be moved with the focus on shuffling obstacles around, it is better to ask for confidence to work with what comes our way gracefully. Those of us with forceful passions have to come to terms with this early yet have to constantly work on it. Tantrums and fretting, work contrary to getting what we want. We tend to think that outside of passion there is only apathy. But the true definition of good fortune is to be confident and at peace so we can enjoy life.

We shouldn’t lose hope, but expect good fortune; staying confident the wisdom will present itself to deal with the misfortunes that may present themselves. This is what is meant by living in the moment without anxiety. Our time on earth is short and shouldn’t be wasted with fretting and anxiety. So the only thing concerning the future that should be in our present is hope; the confidence that our heart will remain settled on the constants of love while our mind will access the wisdom to deal with whatever comes our way.. This has application to career, family and life in general.