We Hope for Certainty, But We Stand in Fear

There are times we wait for courage, but it never really comes. Sometimes we wait for peace, or pure knowledge, or steadfast trust, but we lack the capacity with our mind and heart to accept it. We’re hoping for certainty while stand in fear, our knees knocking, teeth chattering, stress pumping through our veins.

There’s a verse that comes from Matthew 17:20, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Faith. Faith is what it comes down to, faith is what we truly lack. Nothing will be impossible when we have faith.

Consider it this way: if we are provided with courage without faith, we have no cause to be courageous. If we are given trust without faith, what are we trusting in?

Faith the size of a mustard seed, Matthew 17:20
Sitting on top of a giant rock in Denver last week, I realized something: I was safe sitting upon it, but I was terrified to fall off of it. And if Jesus is my rock, I want to be filled with that same fear every day, that I’ll never fall away His presence. That I put my full faith in Him that He will keep me safe as long as I remain in Him.

It’s been striking me lately that I have a tendency to lack in faith, especially in the small things. I remember planning my Fall 2015 class schedule last week and feeling terrified that I would not have the classes I required to graduate on time. But now, I feel ridiculous. I was able to register today and I received all of my first-choice classes. Last week I did not have any trust because I did not have any faith.

Faith the size of a mustard seed, the verse says. I’ve been meditating on it for the past week. I look at my life, and figuratively, I’ve seen mountains move. I’ve overcome obstacles and broken down walls to walk into the fullness of living in Christ. He has proven to me that nothing is impossible through Him. But it’s striking me now: What if the verse is literal? I’ve never seen a real mountain move. They’re huge.

A mustard seed is so small. What if my faith is so much smaller than even the size of a mustard seed? What if the faith that I see as “so large” in this world is smaller than the 1-2mm diameter of the mustard seed?

There’s another verse in Luke that I love, it comes from chapter 17, verse six: “He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.“

I have yet to see a tree be uprooted and planted in the sea, but there’s a tree at Holland State Park that I’d really like to try this out on.

When I scrambled in a search for trust, courage, and peace, and my search was to no avail, faith is the part I was missing. I wanted to be sure of myself, steadfast and certain, before I moved I ahead. It’s so much easier to be fully prepared. But I know now that life doesn’t work that way. It never has, and it never really will. That’s not the life God calls into, either. He qualifies the unqualified as we seek His kingdom and He protects and rejoices with those who put their faith in Him. We must project our heart’s desires ahead of us in faith, knowing He has already gone before us, to gain the courage and capacity to trust without knowing when it will be a reality.

We don’t have to scramble or search for these things, we need only to have faith in our Father.

Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt by faith, said it well, and I am hopeful it will be an encouragement to you today:

“Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today… The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:13-14).

What area of your life is pushing you to have faith? Tweet at me @hopesophie17. Or if you have questions or comments, feel free to contact me at sophie.guetzko@hope.edu.

Dykstra Hall Cluster/Room Video Tour!

Hi prospective students!

A few days ago on Hope on Facebook, I asked if any ladies would be interested in a tour of a cluster and a room in Dykstra! I filmed it this afternoon on my phone and uploaded it to YouTube where you can watch! I really enjoyed making it, so maybe I’ll make more videos in the future!

It’s pretty self-explanatory, so I’ll just embed it below! One side-note is that I did film this on my phone, so I’m sorry it’s not top notch quality. I’ll try to get a better camera in advance next time I decide to make a video for the blog :- )

I hope it answers a lot of your questions, and if you have any more feel free to contact me!

Happy Sunday,

Brooke

If you have any questions for me you can contact me at brookelyn.wharton@hope.edu, through Hope on Facebook, or my Twitter @hopebrooke18! I’d love to answer them!

Those Moments When I Considered Dropping Out…

LibraryBook_130206This last week was one that I would say was slightly difficult. How so? Well, simply put – school. This last week I have been fighting off a sickness, while having to prepare for and take 3 exams, while also trying to do my other homework, and juggling life. To be honest, this week isn’t that abnormal in the sense of busyness, but this one hit more harder than the others. So why? Because it was heavy on the academic part of my schedule.

“I wish I could do college without the academic part” is something I often find myself saying or thinking. I am not naturally a learner; I don’t enjoy doing research. School doesn’t naturally come to me – I have to work hard at it to be successful. Due to that, unlike my other activities and clubs, school drains me physically and mentally. The amount of effort I have to put forward exhausts me. It exhausts me to such a point that it is hard for me to find joy in the fact that I am doing schooling. The lack of joy makes me ponder whether I even want to do school… I actually consider dropping out of college. What always ends up keeping me enrolled is the clubs and organizations that I am involved in that I love and have grown and am growing so much from, the friends that I love who play a huge role in my life, or just the simple fact that I need a degree and I need to do well in order for me to be be successful post college and then adequately be a steward of my gifts.

You know what though, none of those motivations help me find any joy in the fact of me being a student. They just make me trudge the swamp of having to be a student. That is not what I want, not even a tiny bit. I know it is a blessing and a privilege that I have the opportunity to be getting an education, thus I want to be able to acknowledge that I am getting something from it.

And that acknowledgement has come. I was able to take some time at this end of the week and journal about all of this. In that time of reflecting and writing, I decided to take the time and look at all my classes that I have taken while I was a Hope student and write down what impacting thing I have learned from them. In doing that I was able to see that each of my classes have helped play a role in shaping how I think, how I act, and the man I am today. So with that new found knowledge, I want to make that my motivation in not dropping out of school and in having motivation for doing my schooling: I may not enjoy each class I take and the work that goes along with it, but with each class I take, I have the opportunity and often the benefit of gaining something to make myself a better human being.

For more about me, follow me on twitter @hopejohnluke17 or on Instagram at johnlukehawkins. If you have a question you can email me at john.hawkins@hope.edu. Until next time!

The Best Two Jobs on Campus

Hey Everyone,

I would like to give you all a little advice when you come on campus and begin looking for an on-campus job. I currently have the privilege of working for the best two positions on campus.

1. Student Blogger

  • This job is great, you can sit in your bed, on your futon, or anywhere on campus for that matter and work.
  • The hours are whenever you have time to work as long as you are consistently contributing and sharing your experiences.
  • You will have some of the best co-workers and bosses on campus!
  • This job allows you to share your experiences with all the incoming freshman and prospective students just wondering what life on campus is all about.

2. Overnight Host

  • This second job I would say is tied with the first. You get to have students who are interested in Hope staying with you and spending time with you and your friends allowing them to see how great of an experience you are having at Hope.
  • The hours usually are on the weekends just for one night and usually you just get to spend time with your friends involving your prospective student in the activities.
  • It as well is a very convenient job to have with much flexibility in scheduling in order to not allow the stress of a job to overwhelm you at school.

Honestly guys, this has to be two of the best jobs at Hope.
I look forward to seeing you all on campus next year.

Hopefully you had a great week, thanks for reading!

Jesse Heerdt

MOVIE REVIEW FRIDAY: “Kingsman”

One of the ways to escape studying and other pseudo-adult responsibilities is to go to the Holland 7 or local AMC Theater.  Last week, I saw “Kingsman” and I felt like it didn’t live up to the hype it was building up to. [Spoilers ahead]

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That Guinness product placement is not coincidental.

First off, I’ll start by saying what I liked about this movie (not much). The scenery was extremely realistic and the 1997 scene was a good start to the movie, but it all goes down from there… I liked the stunt-craft in the movie, there were some pretty unbelievable dodges and moves, but the movie doesn’t feel as well as “Skyfall” or a comparable movie. The ending was a decent if not long overdue ending.

The rest of movie feels pretty rhetorical and inflated. The action is just too much too soon. The candidate tests seem to be there to purely fill in some of the movie time, and the movie was full of overused plot elements. I mean really, the evil villain explaining the plot to his/her helper and them killing the helper. Really? The mid-credits scene was something I think the directors should have deemed important and emotional enough that it could have been placed in the near-end of the movie, instead of where it was placed. The violence was good, but it fails too hit the violence sweet spot. Too me, the violence felt stretched and put in as a placeholder and it doesn’t fit in with the stunt-craft and other aspects. The gun battles and fistfights seem like rehearsed robotic scenes.

My major concern is that the agent was a kid. Although that isn’t bad in itself, it cuts out the possibility of love scenes such as those in James Bond movies. And given the R rating, I feel like those would have been necessary to balance out the other aspects of the film. Any romance that was in there was insubstantial, and there was not much dating/love between Eggsy and Roxy. I watched this move highly expecting a good mix of action, spydom, violence, and romance. However, I found the movie lacking on romance, and plenty of violence and action.

The movie felt kind cliched with with elements pieced from other movies and the sum of the parts were worst than the parts themselves. The plot was basically an old-fashioned plot retrofitted by 21st century elements, and I don’t think the reason the plot was hatched is a compelling reason for Valentine to put the evil plan in action.

In conclusion, the movie fails to revitalize the spy genre, a genre that was set nearly 50 years ago by James Bond films. The high-tech hideout and weaponry doesn’t save the movie was being a blunder, even by low-quality standards.

When In Europe…

TGIF to everyone! This first week post-spring break flew by. During this time, time usually does fly. I mean, we only have 4 weeks of class left and finals week. Oh wow, that makes me uneasy. Anyway, if you have been following some of my blog posts regarding my spring break, awesome. If you haven’t make sure to check some of my blog posts on this site, and well as my other blogging page.

After some reflection, and by some, I mean a ton, I realized that this was my last spring break as an undergraduate, and I did it with a bang by going to Europe! I write about my adventures and could ramble on and on, but I just want to share my highlights with you all. If you the opportunity, I would recommend you visiting some of these places, or just traveling in general. It’s been a blast telling my friends these stories, and it is also weird to say that I was in Europe less than a week ago! Anyway, here are my top 5 experiences this past break!

1. Gdansk, Poland

Gdnask is a city in Poland that lies on the Baltic Sea. This city is about twice as large as Grand Rapids, Michigan. But this city was filled with so much history, being the site where WWII during the invasion of Poland. The architecture and buildings in Stare Miasto (or Old Town) We’re replicated to match what they were pre-WWII and they did an amazing job. It was chilly when I was here, but that’s because it was on the water!

2. Trains

Instead of driving from city to city, my friend Dimitrie and I decided that it would be European to travel via train. When in Europe, do as the Europeans do, right? The metro and train systems in Europe are merely amazing, and it makes me sad that the US doesn’t have an awesome system like Europe’s. Not only are trains fun, but they were very cheap and affordable.

3. Warszawa (Warsaw)

Warsaw is Poland’s capital and largest city. With the cities we visited, this was definitely the most modernized one with skyscrapers, food, and shopping everywhere. Despite its modernization, my favorite aspect of Warsaw was Stare Miasto (Old Town). Again, it was destroyed in WWII, but the efforts that were invested to recreate it make it look like no one touched a building. Europe is just better than the States at time merely because of its extensive history, and this is evident through the design and structure of European cities.

4. Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp

Out of my top 5 experiences, this would be my favorite. Although emotionally draining and painful to experience, being at Auschwitz was purely powerful. To see what prisoners have been through makes me not only cringe, but my heart also cried for them. To realize the atrocities conducted here was just unbearable. This is a place to visit sometime in your lifetime. Your perspective truly does change. If you want to read more about Auschwitz, make sure to check out my post on it!

5. Last but not least, Copenhagen!

Despite that Dimitrie and I were only in Poland for a limited amount of time, we did Copenhagen right, hitting up the most important landmarks! We visited the Little Mermaid Statue, visited a fortress, and NyHavn, my favorite part of Denmark! NyHavn is a section of Copenhagen that is within its canal system with shops and restaurants along the water. What a sight! It is such a beautiful country, but their prices definitely took a toll on my wallet. I got used to Poland because it was very cheap their, so Denmark was a stretch, but so worth it! There was just so much history again, making it one of my favorites!

Enjoy these pictures I took from each of my top 5 experiences, everyone! Thanks for reading!

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New Adventures

As my senior year at Hope is coming to a close, I never thought that I would find new things to do at Hope. Basically, my thought process was that I would spend the last 40 days of college doing the same things over and over again. But, that’s not what’s happened! In the past couple weeks I’ve had the opportunity to do so many new and fun things, and I want to share them with you!

Lake Michigan

In my time at Hope I had never visited Lake Michigan when it was frozen over. But just a few weekends ago, I went with my friend, and fellow blogger Leslie, to watch the sunset over the lake. The lake was so beautiful – definitely a trip worth taking if you decide to attend Hope.

Lake Michigan Completely Frozen!
Lake Michigan Completely Frozen!

Hope Baseball Games

Before Tuesday, I had never been to a Hope baseball game. After today, I’ve been to three. Like any sporting event at college, it’s fun to attend games that your friends are playing in. And today, it was even more fun to be at the game since Hope beat Calvin.

Taco Bell

Throughout my time in college, I always knew that I liked Taco Bell; however, over the past couple weeks, Taco Bell has become a much needed study break with friends. Once or twice a week, I head over to Taco Bell with two of my friends, and we order “three crunch wraps supreme – no tomatoes”. I really can’t explain it, but there’s just something about late nights at college and Taco Bell that go hand-in-hand.

Ultimate Frisbee

I’ve never played Ultimate Frisbee, but on Monday I have my first game. I’m pretty excited to be the “team mom” and bring snacks to every game – and eventually catch a touchdown (or goal… not sure what it’s called).

All in all, my last semester at Hope College has been tons of fun! And, I look forward to seeing what the last 37 days have to hold!

Spring Break in the Carolinas

This spring break, I got to go on tour with Hope’s Chapel Choir to North and South Carolina. I had never been there before, so it was a really cool experience! I love the Carolinas now and it was cool to see how our sound progressed and changed in each new venue each night. We started out in Ohio, then went on to several shows in North Carolina, a visit to Duke University, a free day in Charleston, SC, and one night in Virginia before heading back home. Choir tour was an awesome opportunity to experience so many new things. Otherwise, I probably would have just gone home, which would have been fine, but it was awesome to go somewhere I had never been before. We came back to Hope Thursday night, and Friday morning I took the train to Chicago, where my parents picked my boyfriend Larry and I up for a quick weekend at home. I got to see my high school’s production of “The Little Mermaid” (so, so cute!), visit my grandparents, and sing at my home church. It was great to be there, even though it was just for a few days.

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Now I have about five more weeks left at Hope this semester, including finals. It sounds short, but I have so much to pack into these few weeks that I don’t really want to think about it! I know everything will get done, but I am going to have to budget my time more wisely than usual. It’s the final push! In the meantime, I have coffee and Jesus to keep me truckin’. Praise the Lord for that!

Keep up with me on Twitter (@hopekathryn17), Instagram (@kathrynekrieger), or send me an email at kathryn.krieger@hope.edu. Thanks for reading!

“But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength so that I might preach the Good News in its entirety for all the Gentiles to hear. And he rescued me from certain death.”

– 2 Timothy 4:17

ColoROADtrip

I know… another Spring Break blog post, but guess what?!?!? This trip was so freakin’ amazing, there is now way that I can’t share! This past week, me and 9 other of my friends took off for Colorado.

For me, this was my first time out west (before this trip, I had never been more west that Illinois). This road trip was so good that, there is no way to cap it up in just a few short words, so I have made three subtopics: Adventure, Sights, and Friends.

Adventure. BOY, WAS IT EVER! We did a ton of adventuring in just one short week, both hot and cold. We hiked in a place called Red Rock, walked around Denver City, boulder-ed and climbed to the top of a flat iron in Boulder, drove up a mountain, watched the sun set over the mountain, hiked alongside Breckenridge mountain, and skied down Copper mountain (THIS WAS MY FIRST TIME EVER SKIING!!!). I had the time of my life doing these adventures.

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Half of that “time of my life” came from the sights. Wow. Just wow. That is all I can say. I was and still am blown away. Again, this is the first time I had ever seen anything like what I saw over spring break. It was all just breathtaking and amazing to see the beauty that God has put on this earth.

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The other half that made this trip the “time of my life” was the people. I love my friends and am so blessed to have met every single one of them. Over this trip we had amazing laughter and adventures, but we also just has amazing and godly conversation, something I always crave in relationships. This community that am I in, is one that is so nurturing for me both in helping others to grow and in the encouragement for me to grow as well. I know it is super cliche, but #blessed.

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All in all, this has been the best Spring Break of my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

For more about me, follow me on twitter @hopejohnluke17 or on Instagram at johnlukehawkins. If you have a question you can email me at john.hawkins@hope.edu. Until next time!

Memorable Spring Break (Part II)

I thought it would be nice to split up my Spring Break adventures into two separate posts, since I had so much going on. Here’s Part II:

Wednesday

On Wednesday, Audrey and I decided to go back downtown to tour the Castillo de San Marcos fort, which was awesome! Going through all of the different rooms and sleeping quarters was really interesting. Plus, when walking through, some people carved their names into the walls and we saw a couple who dated their names in 1883!! After walking around the fort and getting some good pictures, we were craving some Mexican food and stumbled upon Fiesta Jack’s, which had great burritos. We chowed down and headed back to our condo and read for a while on the porch and just enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. Since it was St. Patrick’s Day, we decided to celebrate by making some puppy chow and watching some TV to end our eventful day.

Thursday

It happened to be raining on Thursday, so what better thing to do than get pedicures! Audrey, her mom and I got pampered for an hour in those massage chairs while we got our nails done. We then ran a few errands and later enjoyed listening to the rain while reading. There’s nothing better than snuggling in a blanket and reading while it’s pouring outside! We read for a while (followed by napping) and decided to watch “What a Girl Wants” and “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.” Audrey had never seen either of the “Sisterhood” movies prior to this break, so I made her experience them both! Once the movies were done, the sky had cleared up and we were able to look up at the stars and just hang out and chat before heading to bed.

Friday

This was probably the most eventful day yet! Audrey and I woke up early and went zip lining over crocodiles and various other creatures. It was my first time zip lining and I had such a blast because the instructor was on the ground watching both of us, so we were completely on our own. Luckily we survived the snarling albino crocodiles and didn’t make complete fools of ourselves while people below us were watching. Following this adventure, we decided to go back to the outlet malls and buy a few things that we both had our eyes on—maybe spent more than we needed to, but it was SO worth it. I’m pretty sure we got back to the apartment and took a nap before we headed back downtown to a cute pizza place and enjoyed one last meal all together.

Saturday and Sunday

Sadly, I had to fly back to Michigan on Saturday after such a warm and fun week in Florida. My flight landed in Grand Rapids that afternoon and I was fortunate enough to stay at my friend Connor’s house for the remaining of the weekend and get acclimated to the cold weather. Since it’s March Madness, we watched countless hours of basketball, played some ping pong and just relaxed before having to back to school on Sunday.

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Well there you have it! That was my awesome Spring Break in Florida, filled with so many good times and long talks with my close friend. I couldn’t have asked for a better break to end out my senior year!

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @hopeleslie15.