I have just sat down after a day of family and friends frolicking in the pool, talking over dinner and just sharing. When the rooms in my house are quiet and I can hear myself think, I can’t help but go to those places where the questions never really have answers.I am preparing for New Year’s Eve, nothing special just time with my family but I know what I’ll be entering 2008 with at the striking of 12 midnight…will things change in 2008? As I comtemplate the lives of those around me including mine, I do notice that things have changed. We’ve grown older, some wiser, others not so wise :-), others have added children to their tribe while one awaits news if her son will even live (her son is in the hospital in critical as I write). In some cases, we’ve lost jobs, started new ones, have a larger network of people who have become friends, crossed off some things from the “bucket list” (you know the list you write hoping you’ll get to before you “kick the bucket” ala the upcoming movie) and other such things.
As I write I know that my roles are changing in 2008 in some areas and you’ll know about them as soon as I am ready to write about them. But I am talking about a different kind of change. I am talking about a change of life that includes a revolution of hope. “A revolution of hope is not just a matter of reading a book or hearing an inspiring sermon. True, a book or sermon or personal encounter may be a vehicle through which hope wins our hearts. But a revolution of hope makes radical demands of us. It requires us to learn new skills and habits and capacities: the skills of a new way of thinking, the capacities of a new way of living….it is a new way of life that changes everything.” (Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change - Jesus, Global Crises and a Revolution of Hope. Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN Copyright © 2007 by Brian D. McLaren. P. 283). I want to learn the new skills, gain the capacity to live a new way. In some ways, I have this inner voice that tells me some things have to change within me first, then actions have to be taken to re-sort some of the priorities I have in my life and then maybe, there will be room for a revolution of HOPE.
Hope happens when someone sees something, decides that it is desirable, realizes that they may not get it, but believes that there is still a chance of getting it. Charles Revson, founder of the famous Revlon cosmetics empire famously said that what he sold was ‘hope’. I can believe that since us women have hope that all the cosmetics we buy will keep us looking young! But all this to say, I have a hope for 2008 because the number eight denotes “resurrection”, “regeneration”; a new beginning or commencement. The eighth is the NEW FIRST. I believe God is going to do a few FIRSTS with me and my family in 2008; I believe that there will be a resurrection and new beginning for some things I thought were dead and a commencement of things I thought I had no future in. This is what my heart tells me. Bottomline, this is my hope but most importantly, my hope is in the Lord whom I trust.
The prophet Jeremiah knew the secret: “Blessed [happy] is the (wo) man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:7). God—the all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of the universe, who cares about your every problem—this God alone can build a secure future for you. The person who has never trusted Jesus Christ may see life as hopeless. Heck, even those of us who have walked with God many years sometimes see the world very dark, but the difference is that eventually, after the tears, after the gut wrenching cries, we STILL have hope.
In the final analysis, those who don’t trust in Jesus are right, for without Christ he has “no hope and [is] without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).But Jesus Christ offers what you and me what we could never purchase and no one can take from us….…love that is not based on your feelings or merits but on the never-ending mercies of God (Romans 5:8).…freedom to know and enjoy God because Jesus Christ has taken the punishment for your sins (1 Peter 3:18).…friendship that will never disappoint you because Jesus promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).…a reason for living because following Christ gives true meaning and purpose to life (John 14:6).…an unshakable future firmly based on Christ’s promise, “I will come again” (John 14:3).…an eternal home where the killjoys of earth—selfishness, hatred, death—will all be gone (Revelation 21:4).
As you enter this new year, you can depend on yourself and wish for the best (and as Dr. Phil would say, “how’s that working for ya?”), or you can put your hope in God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Through faith in His Word you can be filled with hope that will never fail and life that will never end.I have a hope for 2008, that everything must change including me, but with my hope in Jesus, how can it not?
Happy New Year folks!!
