What Saint Patrick Can Teach Us About Hope

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What Saint Patrick Can Teach Us About Hope

How the Story of Saint Patrick Demonstrates The Power of Hope

Imagine what it would be like to be kidnapped as a child and taken to a foreign country where you became a slave. This is what happened to sixteen year old English boy (although there are other theories that he was from Wales or Scotland) in the fifth century who was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland. He remained in captivity for six years until he was finally able to escape back to his homeland. This is already an incredible story, but the most amazing thing is that Patrick returned to Ireland years later with the goal of converting his former captors to Christianity. He was so successful in this endeavor that he is now considered the patron saint of Ireland, and each year he is celebrated by the Irish all around the globe.

So, What Does All This Have To Do With Hope?

Saint Patrick is a wonderful example of the power of hope. Being kidnapped at a young age and being held captive for years is undoubtedly highly traumatizing. It is the kind of experience that would cause most of us to lose hope, and yet, he not only managed to escape captivity but went on to study in France and become ordained in the church. He then decided to turn to return to Ireland to bring Christianity to the island (this must have took incredible courage as well as hope) .

Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.

Viktor Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning

The Power of Hope

It is understandable when people lose hope and start to give up on life. We can just get worn down by bad things happening, getting hurt, and repeated failure. It can be like being lost in the wilderness, there comes a point where you have to ask is it even reasonable to expect to escape our predicament?

It is likely going to sound like a cliché, but it is true that while there is life there is hope. Some of us struggled with hardships such as addiction for years (even decades), and checked all the boxes for ‘hopeless case’, and yet were able to completely turn our life around. It may have felt at the time that each failure was taking us further away from our goal when it fact it was taking us that bit closer. Hope is what allowed us to keep going until the ‘magic happened’.

Never Lose Hope

One of the attributes that we can be certain of in life is that things change. The question for us is whether it is going to be a change for the better or worse. It is hope for a better future that allows us to make the positive changes in our life that creates that better future. The good news is that we don’t need to solely rely on hope forever – eventually we start to see proof that our life is moving in a better direction.

If you are looking to move your life in a new direction, but you are being held back by an addiction issue, please contact the team at Hope Rehab Thailand to see how we might be able to help you.