Remember joy in the other hand. (Matthew 17:22-23)

There is grief out there and hope in HIM.

I know that with everything going on in this world is can be hard to say hold out hope. With social media and echo-chambers inviting so much division it is or can be hard to see any kind of light at the end of the tunnel. Can be hard to believe that there is such a thing as light at the end tunnel in times when it hurts to even believe in such a thing as hope, let alone the idea of having or holding joy in the other hand.

I know it can be hard to believe, more so when you are in the middle of a grief moment; I can share one of my own so when I tell you that there is hope on the other hand it doesn't seem like total ____. My fiancé and I have been apart for going on three years now because of all the restrictions and the like and have lost family in the middle of it as well. Some by death, others for other reasons; to say the least the struggle has been there. I wouldn't call it "real" though. Hear me, please, it isn't to say that I'm not in a battle, I miss my mate a great deal to say nothing of the other struggles I face (missing three molars on the bottom makes food a little ugh sometimes. Still I can eat sooo what do I have to complain about with it?) it's that I have chosen my perspective. I know there is a valley here, only the willfully ignorant or the lost would not see the valley; I see the light on the other side of it at the same time. I see the But GOD moment to come, I see the fact that in 31 years of life GOD has never failed me, I had to learn to be grateful for what I had, but heck if you aren't, aren't you been just a little full of yourself to not be? If nothing else for the fact that you are not facing some of the horrors of this world like human trafficking. Start with something big if you need a place to start saying thank you from and then move from a place of Laminations *grin* to seeing hope on the other side. Not ignoring the sorrow, choosing the hand to focus on, the one that says this is the end or the hand that holds out hope and knows there is not only Light in the darkness, that the darkness cannot put it out. Don't ignore the grief, tell it where it sits in relation to HIS truth; not on the alter but as an offering saying, "I trust you with this, even if I don't see a way out, YOU do, my Way-Making-Father."