Word of the Month- Hope

Hope sounds simple until you try to hold it on a day that still hurts. April moves fast, spring shows up in fits and starts, and everyone seems ready to celebrate new beginnings even when your heart is still catching up. 

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Transcript

April Changes And Signs Of Life

Grief Around Easter And Loss

Quiet Hope In Daily Healing

Easter Promise Romans And Reflection

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to CC Airwaves. My name is Paige Matillo, and today we're continuing our Word of the Month series, a time where we pause and reflect on a word that can guide us through the season we're in. And for April, our word is hope. Now, before I start, I would just like to say, how is it already April? I just can't believe it. I mean, for me, it was just January and I blinked. And now all of a sudden, we're in April. We're getting ready to celebrate Easter and we're getting ready for spring. And then soon it'll be summer. It's just all happening so fast. So I am taking a moment today to ground myself and really live in the moment. So I do hope you join me with that. Anyway, continuing on. April is a month full of change in life. After the long winter, the world around us begins to wake up again. Flowers start to bloom on the trees, the trees fill with leaves, and the days grow warmer and brighter. Well, unless you're here in Cleveland, where, as I'm recording, we were just hit with snow yet again. But I digress. In the spring, everywhere we look, there are signs of new life. And in many ways, that's what hope is. It's the belief that something good can grow again, even after a season that felt cold or difficult, just like this winter felt. But if I am being completely honest, hope isn't always easy to feel, especially this time of year. My grandma passed away at the beginning of April a few years ago, right around the time of Easter. And I remember feeling this tension because Easter is supposed to be about joy and the resurrection and hope, but I just didn't feel that. I felt grief and loss, and honestly, it was hard to hold both of those things at the same time. And maybe some of you listening can relate to that. When the world around you is celebrating, but your heart is still healing from a loss. And it has been three years since I lost my grandma. And I've learned that healing doesn't happen all at once, and that hope doesn't always come in big, obvious ways. Sometimes hope is quiet. It's the moment you realize you're smiling at a memory instead of crying over it. It's about getting through a day that once felt impossible. Maybe a birthday or the holiday or just a regular old day where you uncovered a memory that just made it hard to make to get through. It's about feeling a little lighter than you did before. In our faith, April is often tied to Easter, the celebration of Christ's resurrection. And what I've come to understand is that Easter doesn't ignore suffering. It comes after it. The resurrection only happens after the cross. And that reminds us that hope isn't about skipping over pain. It's about trusting that even in the middle of it, something new is still possible. Scripture tells us in Romans 15, 13, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. That doesn't mean we always feel joyful or peaceful, but it means those things are still being offered to us, even in the hard moments. So this month, I invite you to reflect. As we move through April, let this word stay with you. Hope. A reminder that even after loss, even after the hardest seasons, new life can still grow. Thank you for joining me for this month's reflection. I'll see you next time on CC Airwaves. God bless.