Hope. Expectation.

I saw one of the clearest pictures of hope and trust today. I found out this evening that a dear friend has cancer. Tears started to flow, and continue to. There's lots of emotions, but there are emotions that are not there. Yes, there is sadness, but there is also joy, hope, and trust. We have been given such great love, and when there is perfect love it casts out all fear. I have no doubt that my Creator is going to use her in mighty ways. What stands out is her one desire is to spread hope, to challenge others to do what  they were born to do, to believe their dreams will come true and watch them happen. And now she has a platform to do that from! She can live out her desires not how she may have pictured, but how God in His beauty pictured it. In her words, "Hope is this expectation of God's goodness that changes reality, and it's not that things look good, it's that you choose to expect good until things around you look good." I'm excited-and I can be because I have hope-for what God in His perfect plan is going to do through all of this. Come what may, I know He will be exulted. I am rejoicing in Hope, because He is trustworthy. Sorrow may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning!

"The Lord is my strength and my shield;

My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped;

Therefore my heart exults,

And with my song I shall thank Him."

~Psalm 28:7

Then open up to Psalm 27, it's pretty grand. In my Bible this chapter is titled "A Psalm of Fearless Trust in God." That it is. It was already a favorite of mine, but now it'll have even more meaning.