You’re going to be happy said life, but first I’ll make you strong.

It’s a cold January evening as I write sitting on the sands of the Georgia coast. Snow still on the dunes for the first time since the 80’s. The sun is just beginning to go down with the most beautiful colors of sunset with an added addition of rainbow bursts. God’s extra touch, my reminder and sign of his promises. Not a soul touches the sand for miles around as I sit wrapped in the largest blanket that I could engulf myself in. Wrapped up in a little ball I whisper to myself, “Close your eyes and listen. Take it all in. Feel it in the deepest places of your heart.” And there it was. I went to a special place where I have craved being. Peace with a mind to accept whatever came through it and to it.  In the midst of life, I have to remind myself to stop and slow down sometimes. It needs that. It needs to see where your heart needs to be, where it wants to be, where it yearns for healing.

There is something special about the shores of anywhere. I’ve touched them throughout the hemispheres and each one seems to heal the soul in the same way but with a different impression all at the same time. As a dear person reminded me today that there is something different about the way the ocean feels in the winter. To be completely honest, I couldn’t tell you what that is, but I felt it. It’s the stillness and the calmness, it’s that silence that we all need. I listened to the water wash up and wash out with what seemed like my troubles as well.

I’ve learned in life there will be troubles and there will be tragedy. There will be days where you can’t seem to fathom picking one foot up and putting it in front of the other and days when you question where your life is going. Days when everything you thought was, was no longer and days when have to accept the very things that you whole heartedly don’t want to accept. Days when your body aches for answers and days when you want to wake up from a terrible nightmare. Days when you question your purpose and days when you fight with everything you have for it to still seem to crumble. We all have these days. They are inevitable, but they don’t last forever. And one day, we will look back and say thank you for the lessons, for that is who and what we are made up of.

What I have discovered through these tough days that we can’t seem to see ourselves out of is that the other side will be a magnificent view to see through. Days when we don’t understand the pain that we must endure, we will paint over that terrible scar with an even more beautiful color. Days when we feel like we have no strength left to fight with, somehow, out of nowhere, our strides and smiles will be larger than ever.

Hope is a word that I associate with tough days. And lately Hope has seemed to infiltrate all of my readings and random life experiences. With a group of mentors last night, we got on the subject of hope. I’ve always been that girl to hope a little too much, which I don’t think is such a bad thing. And through circumstances, I have found myself leaning on hope and trying to have a better understand in the entirety of it. Maybe hope in circumstances doesn’t come out looking the way we had wanted it to. Maybe we learn to have hope in God enough to take care of us and the situation or person despite the outcome of the circumstance.” Light switch. God always knows better than we do. We hand it over, and he takes better care with his will than we ever could have. It doesn’t mean you give up hope on a certain person or thing, it just means that you hope and trust God enough to do far more with it than we ever could.

Two weeks ago, I went out to my little quiet place at the dock at sunset. I sat down there and listened to the marsh grass sway as the sunset lit up the golden pond. It was peaceful and it was quiet. As the sun began to set, my eyes gazed in awe. It was a stunning one for sure this night. I sat there and watched the sun fade until it had just disappeared behind the tree line. I walked to the car and began to make my trek home. As I was going down back roads when I noticed that the sky kept getting more and more beautiful. Minute by minute, it grew brighter and more vivid. What I thought was over and finished was truly only just beginning. And in that moment with myself, God and the sky I heard it clear as day “Just when you think it’s all finished and your heart aches for the end, life gets more beautiful than you could ever begin to imagine.”

Hope is always there, we just have to take the time to see it and experience. It’s up to us. Glass half full or glass half empty? As long as we have something in our glass, we have hope. Never give up my friend. It’s only just beginning.

Sometimes in the darkest of storms, God reveals the brightest of moments. The revelation of hope so often lost through what seems like a hopeless situation. Hold tight to your faith. Don’t let it go. Look up, look down. Be still and look around. You never know what divine moment is right beside you in the most unexpected places. Believe in the power of the storm.

When you go through deep waters I will be with you. Isiah 43:2

-C. Spradlin