Searching for Faith Hope and Charity
Searching for Hope
Searching for Hope
Before I was born, my father used to pick sugar cane during the harvest season. The plantations were a three-day walk north from our village in the mountains. During his yearly journeys to and from the sugar cane fields, he would sometimes stay with a kind elderly couple that offered shelter to mountain travelers. The couple lived in a small nipa hut and slept on the floor. The couple had no children, but they lived with their three loyal dogs they had named Faith, Hope and Charity. All three dogs looked exactly alike. The dogs brought joy to the elderly couple and kept them warm during the cool mountain nights.
One year, as my father was passing through the elderly couple’s village, he noticed that one of the dogs was missing. “Where is your other hound? Is she out chasing birds?”
“No,” replied the old woman in a sad voice. “That would be Charity. Many of the villagers have moved to the city. There is no money here and not enough food to feed everyone. One by one, families are leaving the mountain and moving to the city to find work and make a better life. They take their children, but in the city, it is difficult to find kind people that can offer shelter. We have heard stories about families with children living on the streets. We think Charity may have followed some of the children to the city. Perhaps, Charity belongs with the children in the city.”
“That is very sad. I wish there were something I could do, but I know there is nothing I could offer that could replace your Charity.”
“Thank you for your kind words, my trusted friend,” said the old man to my father. “But don’t worry about us. As long as we have Faith and Hope, we can survive without Charity.
My father did not pass through that village for several years. His own father had taken ill and he needed to take care of the family and the small farm. By and by, my grandfather regained his health. My father decided to go back to the sugar cane plantation to earn some extra money. On the way, he passed through the village where the elderly couple had been living, but their house was empty and dilapidated. He feared the worst for them, but hoped they had just moved to the city with the other villagers.
He asked several of the people that remained in the mountain village about the elderly couple. “Ah, the old man and old woman,” explained one villager. “Their house was destroyed in a storm, but they are fine. You can find them just over that ridge. They moved there because it is safer on that side of the mountain during a storm. They only have a tent for a house, but they are okay.”
My father climbed over the ridge and just as the villager had said, there was a tent-like shelter and the elderly couple were sitting outside it. My father was so happy to see them that he greeted them with hugs and blessings. The elderly couple were quite happy to see my father. Ever since they had lost their house, they had few, if any, visitors. The couple invited my father for dinner and offered my father a place to sleep for the night. At dinner, my father saw that there was only one dog waiting for the table scraps. “Where is the other hound? Is she not hungry?”
The old woman’s voice took on a sad tone again. “God pray she is not lost forever.”
“Lost? Have you lost your Faith or have you lost your Hope?”
“That would be Hope,” the old woman replied. “Our Hope is lost.”
“Since when is she gone? Should we be out searching for your Hope?”
“Thank you for the offer young man, but Hope has been lost for quite some number of months, now. The storm destroyed our house and washed everything we owned down the mountain. That is when we discovered that our Hope, too, was gone. Never you mind, though. We search for Hope every day.” The old man looked at his other dog, and then at his wife and smiled, “As long as we have Faith, we will keep searching for Hope.”
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I hope you have enjoyed this story that my father used to tell me when I was a child. It has stayed in my mind all my life and I think of the elderly couple during those times when Hope seems lost. However, with Faith, whatever our Faith might be, with true honest, worthy Faith, there is always Hope.
If you like the story, please comment below and include any thoughts you have about Faith, Hope and Charity.
Here are some famous quotes about Faith, Hope and Charity that I think you may enjoy:
Famous Quotes about Faith, Hope and Charity
- “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.” – Helen Keller
- “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” – Desmond Tutu
- “To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.” – Alan Watts
- “Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things - with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope.” – Corazon Aquino
- “In charity, there is no excess.” – Francis Bacon
- “The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- “Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.” – George Iles
- “As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled.” – Victor Hugo
- “Charity should begin at home, but should not stay there.” – Phillips Brooks
- “Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.” – Kahlil Gibran
- “Faith must be enforced by reason. When faith becomes blind, it dies.” – Mahatma Gandhi
- “A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope.” – Epictetus
- “But peace does not rest in the charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper, let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace in the hearts and minds of all of our people. I believe that we can. I believe the problems of human destiny are not beyond the reach of human beings.” – John F. Kennedy