Recently, I came across a query in one of my groups. What had I done lately that I wanted to celebrate? Initially I thought, well, I haven’t really done anything. But after some consideration, here’s what I said.

For the past year there has been severe illness in my close family. I’ve had to drop everything  – new writing projects, promo, poetry club I started at school, critique groups I led, EVERYTHING. And yet I’ve managed to publish some individual poems here and there, and been blessed with invitations to speak and read from my trauma memoir, “The Locust Years. ” God is still seeing to it that this message gets out. 

Its ALL Him. He prompted me to tell my story. He showed me where and how to publish it. He is making sure that it’s message of hope and being able to thrive in the midst of life’s storms gets spread. I am actually, seriously blown away by his goodness.

You’ve heard, “Never forget where you come from?” I come from God. I was raised by him! Seriously. I can’t count the times I’ve said, if I hadn’t met Jesus at a young age, I would be dead. And as many times as I’ve said it, there are SO MANY MORE that I’ve thought it. 

When I say that I’d be dead, mostly I mean suicide.

If I didn’t know Jesus’ love and have this flower of hope that he plants in my spirit growing all the time, I would have given up long ago, and many times along my journey through this life – whatever it is. Whatever it’s supposed to be about.

I never knew. I still don’t. But because I have Jesus, I can trust that it is going somewhere; that there is a purpose. Even when it hurts. Even when it rips your heart out and squeezes it dry. I can’t help but praise him!And even when it hurts I just feel like, ain’t nobody gona shut me up!

Hope is important, ya’ll. So important. But not false “hope.” Not the hope that shuts its eyes and says “I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!”

I’m talking REAL hope. The hope that KNOWS,  has an assurance that someone kind and loving beyond human finite definitions of those words is watching over, protecting and guiding us, and that we DO have a home with him forever; that we live with him even now in his wonderful blanket of abiding peace that he continually wraps around us! Snuggle close to Him today – the source of Love, and Hope, and Peace. 

Drop a comment or a heart if this resonates today. Sending you that big, peaceful hug!

~KH