Choose to have hope

Let’s start the new year with hope. Let’s choose to believe that God has good things in store for us. The Bethlehem baby we’ve all been focused on, grew up and became a man. That man had one life purpose which he single-mindedly and courageously fulfilled – to make it possible for you and I to live a life full of hope.

Let hope fill all our days, both the good ones and the bad ones. Hope for all the things that God promised he would give us, not just at the end of our story but on each page of every ordinary day of our story this year.

Let hope be fuel for our faith, heat to melt our despair and light to illuminate our darkness.

As I write these thoughts down, I have hopes for this little writing adventure of mine. There is the tantalising prospect of seeing my words printed and published for readers beyond my own tiny nook of the web. It’s exciting to think that a long buried seed dream is being cultivated by the sower.

On the other hand, a brown hospital appointment envelope has fallen through the letter box. Those brown envelopes may only have a single sheet of paper inside them but it only takes one envelope, one letter, one phone call, one conversation to turn life and dreams upside down.

I put down my pen, (I prefer to begin with old fashioned pen and paper) and made myself some lunch. As I ate, I picked up my Kindle and read some more of Sue Monk Kidd’s book, When The Heart Waits. With only two turns of the page, I read these words –

‘Hope lies in braving the chaos and waiting calmly, with trust in the God who loves us.’

I like these words a lot. I like that I have read them at the outset of another year. I’m not one for making New Year’s resolutions but I do like the idea of having one word written in capital letters at the top of 2017’s page.

HOPE

I like that I read the words of John 1 in The Message to remind me of who I am and why hope is possible.

‘But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves.’

Hope is possible because we are children of God.

So the journey continues in hope.

The journey of believing Jesus is who he claims he is, of believing that he did and he does and he will do what he says, of believing that he has made us and is making us and will make us our true selves, our child-of-God selves

So, ‘let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.’ (Hebrews 10:23 NLT)