Hope

Hello all,

It has been quite some time since I have last wrote on here. For that I apologize. I actually said I was going to do this everyday. Yikes. I think by everyday I meant every 3 months.

First off, I will fill you in on my life. After this Mayterm, I will be 22 credits away from graduating! I plan on taking 2 summer courses at UWM so that when I return to Ashland in September, it will be my last semester of college! If you didn't know this, I am not really one to just throw exclamation points wherever, but this is great new! It has been an incredibly long journey! Who knows what will happen next.

The reason I have to take summer classes has a lot to do with my mother passing. I didn't handle that whole grieving thing very well. This semester I had to withdraw from two classes, cutting my course load in half. Time is feeling more like time to me.  I hope that makes sense. I used to count the days and weeks after she passed. Now, I don't. Don't think for a second that I forgot. She is constantly on my mind. This weekend is Mother's Day and my family will all be lighting sky lanterns and letting them float off in to the night sky. We will all be in different parts of the state, but together at the same time. My mother always liked these things and I think it is a great memorial. In case you have never seen one of these, here is a picture:

Now on to the INSPIRATIONAL part of my post. I put it in all caps so it would catch your eye. I bet it did. OK, I read some writings by Gareth Evans ( A Welsh-Canadian I met in Haiti) and he wrote about "hope".  He says, "Hope is an attribute of the mind and is evidenced in confidence." True hope is given to us by God. The kind of hope that was talked about in the letters Paul wrote, was more than just "I hope it doesn't rain today." It was even more than believing. It is knowing. I have hope that one day I will be in heaven. Why? Because God has revealed this to me. Do feel hopeless? Read 1 John. Obi-wan Kenobi is not our only hope. Jesus is. Look to the cross.

Here is a link to Gareth's little article:   http://www.garethevansministries.org/media/Hopeless.pdf

Let me know what you think of this post. The more feedback I get, the more I am encouraged to write more posts.

Have a wonderful day!!

Sean K.