Julie Thiel was my dear sweet sister-in-law and an iron-man triathlete. She was constantly working out, running, biking, swimming and excelling both in competition and professionally in her career. She died at the young age of 40. I had the sad and solemn honor of giving her eulogy.

The theme I selected was “hope.” She left 7 brothers and sisters and her parents. No parent should ever have to bury a child.

I watched my in-laws, Paul and Rita Thiel, eventually bury 2 off-spring and a young infant grandchild. Such a waste. How can you find hope in that? The God we worship does not steal a child from its parents and a sibling from her family.

God works mysteriously, a common answer we hear when someone dies before their time. Nevertheless, I had a good reason for “hope” as a theme. How else can one reconcile the events around the death of a beautiful 40-year old woman?

Julie held multiple post-graduate degrees and spoke several languages. Why did God call her home and break our hearts?

It would be easy to blame the maker you worship when unexpected cancer snatches a loved one from our midst. In accepting the disappointment of such an enormous loss, we must find a way to bridge over to “hope” to lead us back.

Hope is being able to find the light in the darkness. Hope springs eternal. It has been 25 years since I stood to say goodbye to Julie on behalf of her family. Hope was all they had to cling to.

Hope is not the same as optimism and does not mean that everything turns out well for all. It is simply a way of attempting to make sense of the senseless.

To see the millions of beautiful stars in the sky you must be surrounded by the darkness of night. It is the passion we use to lubricate possibilities.

Julie was that way. She never married but was loved by many who knew her. She was committed to her career at Colonial Life Insurance Company in Columbia. Many saw her as over-qualified because of the excellent way she conducted her business daily.

Without hope is to be without goals. How can one achieve without a purpose to move on to the next dark day?

Hope helps us eliminate bad memories and move on to faith in tomorrow… the unknown. If you are lucky, the decisions you make in life will reflect your courage and hope… and not your fear and despair.

Saddest of all, when we lose hope, we lose our will to live. Without hope everything tomorrow ceases to exist as we know it. With hope, we find courage to do what it takes to continue to live and succeed.

“Hope anchors the soul,” so sayeth Hebrews 6:19. We all need and want that kind of anchor in our lives. That is how we stay positive in spite of covid-19.

Deuteronomy 31:6 teaches us to “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Faith will never make life easy… it only allows for the impossible to seem possible.

My late friend and colleague Dr. Robert Schuller said it best: “Let your hopes not your hurts shape your future.” Julie had hope despite her fate.

Michael Aun, CSP®, CPAE® Speaker Hall of Fame is author of “Build a Better You, Starting Now” Volume 5.