Ghia – Have you ever wondered which comes first Faith or Hope? This week Ghia talks about the archaic definition of Hope, which is Trust! What a difference this concept has made in her life!

Hooray, GIA here.

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Welcome to the Creative Spiritual

Journey podcast, where Judy and I talk

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about those things that bring us joy.

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For me, I find joy by connecting

with nature, connecting with Jesus

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Christ and our heavenly parents.

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Seasonal living, and all the bits of magic

and wonder I come across while navigating

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this remarkable journey we call life.

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Wow.

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Does it feel like spring

has arrived where you are?

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Things are starting to move faster.

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After the slow, dark winter,

there is more energy in the air.

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Can you feel it?

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Okay.

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Not in South Africa where they're moving

into fall, but here in southeastern Utah,

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it's warm one day and then cold the next.

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But the flowers are blooming.

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The lizards are starting to run around,

and I am getting ready for Easter.

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This year, Easter is almost

three weeks later than last year,

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which makes the seasonal change

seem that much more dramatic.

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It's kind of crazy how

much Easter moves around.

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Did you know that Easter is always

the Sunday after the Pascal full Moon?

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Do you know that word, Pascal?

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I had to look it up.

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It comes from the Hebrew word,

meaning Passover, and it is

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related to Easter because of

Christ becoming the Pascal lamb.

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The Pascal moon is the first

full moon that follows the spring

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equinox in the Northern hemisphere.

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You won't be surprised to learn that.

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I love that.

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The date of Easter is determined by

both the solar and the lunar cycle.

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It has so much significance to me that

these two celestial bodies together

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determine this all important holy day.

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But believe it or not, I am not going

to talk about the moon or the sun today.

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Well, maybe I will reference them a

little, but they're not the main topic.

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My topic today came from a single line

in a conference talk by Elder Anderson.

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He said, quote.

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Hope is a living gift, a gift that grows

as we increase our faith in Jesus Christ.

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What hope is living, it grows.

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You've got to know that.

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I would love that to anthropomorphize.

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An inanimate object is fun, but

to anthropomorphize a word or

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feeling that's over the top.

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But it's okay because I'm not

the only one that does it.

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You know the scripture, John?

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One, one.

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In the beginning was the word, and the

word was with God, and the word was God.

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If God can be a word, then hope can

be alive, and I'm going with it.

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so this Easter seemed like the

perfect time to talk about hope.

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It's spring, the light is increasing

and things are starting to grow.

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the act of a tiny seed.

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Growing into a plant represents the

potential for something small to become

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something significant, and our hope, if

watered and nourished, can grow as well.

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Easter whispers of New beginnings,

A time when hope can bloom, like

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spring flowers, and there is more

to this hope and spring correlation.

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Nephi used the words a

perfect brightness of hope.

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Hope just naturally

seems to radiate light.

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Elder Anderson went on to say like

a light whose brilliance grows.

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Hope brightens the darkened world

and we see our glorious future.

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he also said, and let me paraphrase

this, like an eclipse of the sun, SUN,

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if we block the light of the sun, SON,

it will result in an eclipse of hope.

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Ah, see more references

to the sun and the moon.

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Yes, I love it.

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You can eclipse hope if you

aren't paying attention.

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So today on this beautiful spring

day coming up on Easter, I want

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to share some thoughts about hope.

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I have to say that hope has always been

baffling to me because I thought you

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should have hope and then faith, you hope

for something to be true, and then you

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develop the faith to believe it's true.

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That is the way it

always made sense to me.

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Does anyone else think this way?

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I mean, when you look up the definition

for the word hope, the first one that

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comes up is a feeling of expectation,

a desire for a certain thing to happen.

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I hope to feel better soon,

or I hope to get the job.

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To say I have hope in Jesus Christ

sounds so much weaker to me than

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I have faith in Jesus Christ.

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But when you read the scriptures, they

always say, faith, hope, and charity.

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Faith comes before hope, implying

we need faith and then we get hope.

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but you know what?

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If you're like me, you think, well,

maybe whoever wrote these words just

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wasn't too worried about the order.

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But unfortunately that isn't

the case because there are other

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more clarifying scriptures.

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Moroni 7 42 says, if a man have

faith, he must needs have hope for.

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Without faith, there can't be any hope.

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Faith comes first.

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What is the deal?

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Ah.

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Then one day I found an unexpected answer.

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As I read further down in the dictionary,

I found a different definition for hope.

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The archaic definition

for hope is trust, trust.

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Oh, that makes so much more sense to me.

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First, I have faith in the

Lord and then I can trust him.

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Now, every time I see the word hope, I

substitute trust and see how it sounds.

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It doesn't make sense everywhere,

but it does in a lot of places.

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Here are a few examples where I

have traded the word trust for hope.

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These are all verses from the Psalms.

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Hope thou in God becomes

trust thou in God.

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I hope in thy word becomes

I trust in thy word.

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Let Israel hope in the Lord becomes

let Israel trust in the Lord.

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I love Sister Tracy Browning, who

is currently the second counselor

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in the primary general presidency.

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In her amazing talk seeking

answers to spiritual questions,

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she quotes Elder Scott.

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He said to exercise, faith is to trust

that the Lord knows what he is doing with

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you and that he can accomplish it for

your eternal good, even though you cannot

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understand how he can possibly do it.

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End quote.

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It has been a journey for me, but I

think I am beginning to trust the Lord.

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I am learning that he is always working

in my life and that he has a plan,

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and that if I don't get what I want,

I can assume that it is part of his

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plan and I will get something better.

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Have you heard this idea of

getting something better?

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I learned it from Sister Wendy Nelson.

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Let me give you a brief rundown of

a story she told in one of her books

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Before she and President Nelson had

announced their engagement publicly,

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Wendy went out with a friend to

look for a new home for the couple.

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When Wendy thought she had found

the perfect place, she asked her

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friend to pray with her requesting

that she be able to get the house.

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Her friend prayed saying, help

Wendy get this house, but if not

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this house, then something better.

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Wendy went home pondering those words,

if not this house, then something better.

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She later called her friend and said.

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I didn't know you could do that.

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Ask for something better.

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This moment highlights the profound

truth that even when we think we know

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what we want, there may be something

better that we haven't yet imagined.

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Okay?

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so now I have to tell you my

story of getting something better.

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I decided I wanted to live in a small,

remote ski town on the east side of the

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Sierra Nevada mountains called Mammoth.

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Amazingly, I found a good job.

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But to my disappointment, I

couldn't find a place to live.

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This was before the internet, so I

had to wait a whole week for a new

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issue of the newspaper to come out.

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Every time I wanted to check the listings,

it was a slow, frustrating process.

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In the meantime, my daughter and

I were living out of my truck.

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I honestly didn't think it was too bad.

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I mean, I was anxious to find a place

to live, but I thought we were okay.

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So I was really surprised a couple

weeks ago when my daughter, who

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was all grown up now reminded me

how she had to take a bath in the

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stream before going to high school.

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I conveniently forgot that part

of the story, and apparently I

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permanently traumatized my daughter.

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Well, we did eventually

find a place to live.

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It just wasn't what I wanted.

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Okay.

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Mammoth had some really cute

little cabins nestled in the

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woods, and I really, really wanted.

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One week after week, I would

search the paper to no avail.

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Finally, someone in the tiny mammoth

branch that we were going to told me about

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a trailer that was becoming available.

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I did not.

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Did not want to live in a trailer,

but in the end I had to take it.

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What could I do?

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Winter was coming.

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The reality is that that trailer turned

out to be a blessing for one thing.

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Unlike other places I had

looked at, it had two bathrooms.

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This allowed me to sublet a bedroom and

a bathroom and still have a bathroom

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and a bedroom for my daughter and me.

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And for the other thing, it was right in

the middle of town, not out in the boonies

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where most of the little cabins were.

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This became particularly useful when

I got a second job as a taxi driver.

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I.

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In fact, in the end, I was so grateful

for my trailer that on several

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occasions I recall bearing my testimony

about how God knew what I needed a

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place in town with two bathrooms.

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Then I often jokingly added, but

I'm sure if God had wanted to,

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he could have gotten me a little

cabin in town with two bathrooms.

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It wasn't until it was time for me to

move from Mammoth that I received my

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final miracle in relation to this trailer.

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I was so sad to leave Mammoth.

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I loved the little branch.

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I loved my job.

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I loved living in the

mountains next to whiskey area.

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I mean, it was my dream come true.

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Can you see what's coming?

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The best thing about leaving

Mammoth was leaving that trailer.

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If I had had to leave a cute little

cabin, how much harder would it have been?

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It wasn't until I was moving that I

was finally grateful for that trailer.

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I didn't get a little cabin, but

in the end I got something better.

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I can't say I have 100% learned this

lesson of hope and trust, because

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sometimes in the moment it is so hard

to trust that there could be something

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better than exactly what I want.

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But I do think that slowly I am learning.

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I.

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Judy and I know your time is precious

and that you have many choices.

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We love that you have chosen to

walk with us for a few minutes as

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we navigate this journey of life.

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If you like this podcast, will you take

the time right now to share it with a

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friend, share it somewhere on social

media, or leave us a five star rating.

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Your efforts will help this podcast make

a bigger impact in the world and will

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tell Judy and me that you like our show

and give us the motivation to keep going.

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Thank you in advance for your help,

and as Martin Luther King said.

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Everything that is done in

the world is done by hope.

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Namaste.