hope help: Hope is not the point. - Help.com

I glanced through the link. It made me think of when I invited my sons sensi to come and speak to his class. One child asked about using the weapons. He told them that the weapons are used to learn self control and focus. You need to be focused and in control to be able to use them. It is not about fighting.

As a Christian, I’d have to agree with the Buddhist grandpa. Hope isn’t the point. My grandpa used the process of forging a sword to describe that kind of thing to me. A swordsmith, in order to forge a weapon, has a process that he goes through.

The first thing to do, is gather the metals. This is like Faith. It is the raw substance of something he believes will one day be the sword he sees in his mind. It is the substance of things you believe in, and the evidence of things not yet come to pass.

Then there is the fire. Hope is like a white hot fire, and a burning expectation within each person. The swordsmith knows that the fire itself cannot forge a sword, but by using the flame, and applying it to the metals will cause them to melt so he can pour it into a mould.

Last is the hammer and sharpening stone. This is hard work, patience, and wisdom, and skill. You can pour the metal into something that is shaped like a sword, but until you hammer out the edges, and smoothe out the metal, and sharpen the blade against the stone… it will just be a blunt piece of metal, instead of a sword.

And above all of these things, the swordsmith needs care and love. If the swordsmith doesn’t care about what he’s doing, the quality of the sword will be terrible. Because the difference between something constructed, and something created, is this: a constructed thing can only be loved after it is complete, while a created thing is loved before it ever exists.