by Cory Kemp

Created on: June 26, 2008

Hope Quest

Remember the old days?

So many answers for one simple question. In this case, I am reflecting on how far we have come in securing directions from here to there, wherever here and there may be. Used to be that maps were needed, sometimes several maps, all spread out on the kitchen table or the living room floor. Travelers-in-waiting, we would find our location, pinpoint our destination and start connecting the roads in between. Eventually the American Automobile Association (AAA) enhanced that process with small, flip chart specimens known as TripTiks, eliminating the constant "open the whole map, refold the whole map, uncrumple the whole map" process that frustrated the most gifted map reader. Make no mistake: map reading is a gift. For those of us not blessed with the ability to glance at a paper full of multicolored, squiggly lines and be able to determine our immediate destiny, map reading is torture in a foreign language. Maps mock us.

Enter MapQuest.

Whoever thought of MapQuest deserves a metal, a large page in the great annuls of history and a big ice cream cone for getting this one crucial thing right.
All MapQuest requires of us is to type in where we are, where we want to go and hit enter.

Then, a miracle happens.

All the directions, from backing out of your driveway to pulling into the driveway at the end of your journey is right there in front of you. Granted, all of this needs to be printed out, kept in order and followed to the letter to arrive at one's destination. And, admittedly, sometimes there are glitches and errors. But overall, what a great system!

Hope is a lot like trying to figure out our journey with a map, whether it be a paper one or the computerized version. We need to understand where here is, where there is and what roads we will need to use in between to get from here to there. For hope is not an ethereal concept, a false belief couched in sentimentality and shattered dreams. Hope is tangible, realistic and necessary for we human beings to fully live our lives and our faith.

Where does hope begin? Hope is the belief or understanding that something we can's see, touch, smell, taste or hear already exists or can be created. Hope begins, makes its debut, when we acknowledge something as possible that we don't yet have in our grasp. Finding hope means looking in the right places, searching with an open heart and mind for that which can be made real by our thoughts, words, actions, even our faith.

Jesus spoke openly, boldly and

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