Hope In The Unknown

Today I have some good news and some bad news for you:

Pain is real. Heartbreak is real. Sadness is real. Poverty is real. War is real. Backstabbing is real. Loneliness is real. Failure is real. Death is real.

BUT..... So is hope. Hope is real. 

"What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later."
-Romans 8:18

I lost my 18 year old brother a little over 2 years ago in a way that no one should ever have to lose a family member. I can still remember the feeling I had when my dad called me after work and told me to pull my car over because he had something he needed to tell me. My whole world changed that day. October 24, 2013 is a day that is forever engrained in my head and in my heart. That is the day that I found out what real hope is. 

In the days after, leading up to his funeral, I felt a pain that I have never felt in my life, but I also felt this weird sense of peace that I kept telling myself was delusion because "it hadn't set in yet". Today I know that's not what it was. People who saw me that week kept telling and asking me things like "You seem so at peace.", "How are you smiling right now?", "Why aren't you a total mess?"

I have two words for that: Jesus & Hope.

Jesus IS hope, my friends. He is the author and creator of hope and He longs to love on you and hold you through the battles of this life. You weren't put on this earth to fight alone. You have a Saviour that literally longs to fight FOR you. He wants you to rest in Him. To rest in His goodness and faithfulness.

Today, I have used the tragedy of losing my brother to minister to so many people that have gone through what I have or have gone through what he did in the years before he died. The Lord gives purpose for pain. He brings healing in times of not understanding why bad things happen. I challenge you to trust Him and have hope in Him. He has never failed me. Not once in my 23 years of living on this planet.

Trust him in pain. Trust him in the sadness, in your failed relationships, unemployment, in the strife of life, when friends betray you, when your heart is broken, when you're rejected...... Have hope in the unknown.

 Jesus/Hope changes everything.

" We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure...."
-Hebrews 6:19

Love you all.
-Nikki