Finding Your Hope
/To be honest, I have no idea why God’s given me the ability to bake cakes (other than it’s fun and I like to eat them). Twelve-year-old Jorie had no real plans to scale her hobby into a small business and (hopefully) a career.
I just know that no one has ever not smiled when I’ve brought them a cupcake, and that shared joy is what propels this whole thing forward.
So today, I want to use this cake-baking platform I’ve been given to offer encouragement the two best ways I know how: faith and cake!
Easter is one of my favorite days of the whole year. And it couldn’t come at a better time this year.
I don’t believe in coincidences. Things can’t just happen, you know? There has to be something bigger. SomeONE bigger. There has to be.
And there is.
With this post, it is not my intent to preach at you, to bait-and-switch you into a conversion through a blog post under a cake picture, or to claim that everything is sunshine and rainbows.
Seeing as one of my personal core values is belief—a fundamental, complete, and confident trust in the good of God, others, and myself—my intent with this post is to simply offer hope. I want to share the same encouragement that has kept my hope alive over the past few weeks when it was very tempting to give it all up to the world’s circumstances.
Three of the most powerful words over the course of human history: He is Risen.
At a time when everyone wanted answers, and there were none, He rose.
At a time when death had conquered all, He rose.
At a time when all hope seemed lost, He rose.
Maybe I’m so in search of hope that I’ve abandoned all human logic and rationality in pursuit of the heart of Jesus. Or maybe I’m just scared to live a life without it, hopeless. Either way, the hope of Christ is something I desire for every single person to experience. Because with that hope comes comfort during the unknown, peace during the storm, and strength during the battle.
“Jesus told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this?’” - John 11:25-26
Friends, as Easter approaches, I pray you find your hope. I pray you find your hope from the only source that carries the weight of eternity, that shines the brightest light in the midst of the darkest night, that searches every mountain and every valley until every soul knows its overwhelming joy.
I pray you find a reason to celebrate. To be grateful. To recognize the good happening all around.
We are all looking for joy.
We are all yearning for new life.
We are all in need of hope
It’s up to you where you place your hope. But right now, here on earth, we seem to be running out of options. We’ve been reduced to the bare minimum—no sporting events, no concerts, no school, and in many cases, no work. We’ve been forced to think about what’s really important. Who is really important. And I believe that to be a beautiful thing.
So, where is your hope? And where would you like it to be? I urge you to put it at the foot of the Cross.
And if that sounds absolutely crazy, and it kinda does, then I urge you to try it, and see what happens. Because chances are, God will pick it up and turn it into something bigger than you can ask or imagine.
I’ll leave you with Forever, a song that illustrates the mighty power of the crucifixion & resurrection of Jesus. When God moves, He moves BIG.
One more thing I’ll leave you with—a challenge to make something that inspires hope. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy, or elaborate, or even creative. Just take some time to bake some hope and spread some joy. That’s what I did with this petite little watercolor Risen Cake!
Cheers & Love,
jorie
“The ground began to shake
The stone was rolled away
His perfect love could not be overcome
Now death where is your sting
Our resurrected King has rendered you defeated”
Oh, and what’s a blog post without a baby picture? A waste of a blog post, obviously.
Fun fact: I cried after that bunny moved. Never really been much of an animal person.
