Letter from Jason – April 2024

Dear Honey Run Friends,

Life can be exciting and fun, or it can be stressful and scary. Life can be full of beauty or ugliness. Life can be full of sunshine or dark skies. Life can be full of love or hate.  Life is a mixed bag of experiences and emotions. What do you do when life is going along perfectly? Are you grateful? Do you recognize the blessings as they are occurring in your life? Do you celebrate the goodness and offer your gratitude for all your joy and happiness? How do you react when life is painful and not going your way? Do you complain and are you filled with self-pity? Do you hurt others with your internal ugliness? Or do you offer your gratitude and trust that this pain is temporary and will soon blossom into joy and good times?

Life is so hard. Health problems, money problems, death of loved ones, family and relational problems are all major life issues that try to snuff out the joy that this life provides. Yes, without pain we would not know joy, but if you are like me I would welcome the problem of only having joy and eradicating all pain from my life. But life does not work that way. Thankfully, we have been given the wisdom and knowledge to know our Lord and Savior who walks with us through it all. We just celebrated Resurrection Day recently (Easter) after walking through the valley of Good Friday. God knows our struggles and He shows us that there is joy on the other side.

So, whatever you are facing you can be confident that there is joy on the other side. This doesn’t take away the pain, but it gives us hope. And with the hope we can face life’s challenges with the knowledge and wisdom that this pain will pass.

This time of year is always a struggle for me. Coming out of winter I am anxious and ready for the warmer weather. I’m ready for the sun to shine and the forest to come alive. I’m ready for business to pick up and beauty to abound.  Patience has never been my forte, but I know summer is coming. I know the forest is coming alive and the darkness of winter is almost gone.

Thank God for the changing seasons in life and for giving us the grace, love, and peace of His presence through it all. Thank God for the natural beauty of this world and for the love we have with each other through our families and loved ones.  I pray you are walking through life with joy and if you are deep in the valley, I pray you have loved ones walking with you as you emerge out of the valley and see the light of promise for all of us.

Happy Spring from your hope-filled Innkeeper,

Jason