This past Monday marked five years since my dad passed away. It was a good day actually. Spent it with my mom, sister, and our families. It's always good to be together on "the day."
What a five years it's been. On one hand, there's been a lot of mixed emotions as I've tried to journey past the loss of my father. Grief is a crazy thing. Just when you think you've conquered it, you realize you've been duped.
At the same time, however, my life has also been full of overwhelming joy as I've watched God pour his blessing upon my family and church community. And so of course, I'm extremely thankful.
But the thing that I'm becoming more and more thankful for as times goes by, is this thing called hope. For the first time in my life, I think I'm finally starting to "get it". In fact, I'm not even sure I was able to truly grasp the depth or idea of hope until I found myself in desperate need of it. And now, I find myself becoming more and more dependent upon it as each day passes.
From my journal (8/09):
Hope tells me that...
The future will be better than today.
What's broken will one day be fixed.
What hurts will one day be healed.
What is wrong will one day be made right.
What has been missed, will one day be compensated for.
I'm choosing to embrace this with both hands.
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
