I live in the great state of Michigan, a state where the economic emergency is having it's full affect. It's difficult to read the news every day, wondering if it will all collapse. Are we heading for another depression?
It's New Years Day and Israel and Gaza are lobbing bombs back and forth at each other. The TV shows tanks lined up, ready for an oncoming invasion. Neither side is backing down. Will there be no peace?
AIDS has gone from being a gay disease to an epidemic that is wiping out fathers and mothers from millions of children if Africa. With all of the advance in medicine can't we end this epidemic?
Our young people are leaving the church in droves, finding it irrelevant or unable to satisfy their desire for freedom. Truth is a relevant thing, not a given. Are our children really destined to repeat every mistake we've ever made?
It's enough to drive a man to despair. Yet it's the words of a guy named Paul that bring us light in this darkness. In a letter to the church in Rome he wrote "Suffering produces character, and character perseverance, and perseverance, hope. And hope does not disappoint."
May those be the words of your New Years resolution. Always hope, never be disappointed. Let that hope lead you into the new year in 2009.
