Hope
Hope. It’s a funny thing, eh?
It rises and falls like the tide on this ever changing sea we call our emotions.
It’s been used in book and movie titles, and even as part of political campaign slogans.
Today, at least for me, hope became more real and reached new heights of clarity with one statement:
I could try to tell the backstory here, but I’d invite you to just watch this great video that I previously posted about.
Zac,
I never knew you, but I wish I had. Your faith is so real and so…. fresh. It’s refreshing. My heart breaks and rejoices at the same time, and I have no more words.Be well, and I hope I get to see you someday.
~Nick
It’s crazy how death young death is so clarifying. It shocks us. It reawakens the knowledge of our own mortality and frailty, something I think we put aside- or attempt to- as often and as quickly as we can.
I remember when a childhood friend of mine died suddenly of a brain stem aneurism. He was a senior in college. He and his girlfriend has just decided to get married, but he hadn’t officially proposed yet. And he was gone.
At the time, my faith, belief system, whatever-you-want-to-call-it was weak. I wasn’t doing this or that, and was doing that and this- I wasn’t loving Jesus, as I liked to put it then. I was living separated from what God had for me- as I will state it now.
It was my friend’s death that shook me from my chosen direction. At his memorial service, I pulled the officiant aside and asked him to tell the family that I had returned to my, our, faith and that his death and the memories of our lives together had been the major catalyst for it.
If you’ve been reading the past week or so I’ve posted a couple times about doubt and questioning.
And, I still have questions and doubts.
What? You expected me to say that they’ve all gone and everything is fine now? HA! If only it were that easy.
I’m glad it’s not. I’m glad we get to wrestle. I’m glad that God loves us enough to not give us easy answers.
So yeah- God is still God. And He is Good.
Thanks Zac. 
Ok, after wiping my tears off my face that video was refreshing, empowering,heartbreaking, and humbling all at the same time. I pray that we never waist one day!!!…Not one!! We have such an opportunity to love hard and live loud in the name of the God we serve. I pray we are always a reflection of His never-changing and undying love for each other, for our family, and for our beautiful and precious son Jax! I love you Nick, but even more I love the love of our God that resides inside and all around you!
Life is so fragile and we take it for granted in so many ways. The video is such a triumph of the human spirit and allows for many of us, including myself, to adjust while we are still here. It’s men like Zac that make me want to strive harder for my family and friends. It wants me to grab my children and spend soo much time with them.
Zac was put on this earth for a reason and maybe it was to touch folks via that video.
great post and great wisdom Nick!