Still, Dare to Hope!
Transitions + New Year + New Hope
This piece is AI-free. These words are my creation minus the mechanics of artificial intelligence. You are welcome here!
Friend, today is a holiday, and you have stuff going on. Or maybe you’re reading this later, and that’s okay, too.
Even though I work from home, I try to observe the holidays. It’s not always easy when my desk calls me from the next room. Yes, I do have an actual job—a job unrelated to this writing gig. I am, however, beginning a transition phase.
I cannot believe I’m about to say it, but I will start drawing my social security this year. I know what you’re thinking. She cannot possibly be old enough for that! You are correct, and thank you for noticing.
Indeed, I’ve not yet reached full retirement age, but I’m drawing early. You may want to tell me this is a bad idea or that I must work until that magic number of years. Perhaps you are too young to know what I am talking about or, like me, are well on your way.
For me, 2024 is the beginning of a transition. I am grateful to work for someone who, last year, asked me, “How do you want this to go?” It’s been a blessing to be a part of the conversation concerning how and when I’ll phase into retirement.
My first job came along when I was fifteen—an afterschool job only five minutes down the road from my high school. Except for my second pregnancy and the newborn phase, I have worked all my adult life—a little part-time, mostly full-time, and a lot of volunteer time (mostly at church) thrown in for good measure.
While I will be working at my job a while longer (staying below that earnings threshold), I am beginning to scale back. Eventually, I'll transition to full retirement. It’s surreal to think I have reached this time of life, but I’m looking forward to more time for family…and writing.
P.S. This will not become a newsletter on social security, retirement, or senior life. Furthermore, this may be the last time you hear me mention it. :)
Still, Dare to Hope!
As the new year begins, I encourage you to dare to hope. For you, this thing of having hope may be brand new. Or you may need to add the word ‘again’—as in, dare to hope again.
Yet I still dare to hope when I remember… Lamentations 3.21
Whatever the case, or whatever you have been through in 2023—when we walk with God, we always have hope.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote the Old Testament book of Lamentations to mourn the destruction of Jerusalem. Called by God as a prophet to his homeland, Jeremiah felt the demise of this great city on a deep and personal level.
Respected pastor and teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee said of Jeremiah’s Lamentations, “The book is filled with tears and sorrow. It is a paean of pain, a poem of pity, a proverb of pathos, a hymn of heartbreak, a psalm of sadness, a symphony of sorrow, a story of sifting, a tale of tears, a dirge of desolation, a tragedy of travail, an account of agony…the wailing wall of the Bible.”1
After reading that detailed description (an inadvisably long quote for writers) you may think, “God included Jeremiah’s account of his mourning in Scripture, knowing I would be able to relate.” If you identify with any portion of the descriptive words in that last paragraph, read on.
Lamentations is a picture of mourning, for sure. We all have mourning periods in this life, but Jeremiah’s words also give great reason to hope. He first outlines what has brought destruction upon Jerusalem. If you’ve not read this Old Testament book before or recently, doing so may give you a better understanding of what Jeremiah was dealing with.
Jerusalem, the place the Lord chose as His forever dwelling place, had sinned greatly, and there would be a price to pay (Psalm 132:13-14; Lamentations 1.8). The people of God were about to be carried off to Babylon—a seventy-year captivity as punishment for repeated disobedience.
Were we able to talk with Jeremiah about how this affected him, we might hear him use words like heartbreak, devastation, sorrow, pain, desolation, and travail. In the middle of this disastrous situation, God kept Jeremiah focused on the future and what truly mattered.
I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve…yet I still dare to hope when I remember this… Lamentations 3.20-21
In this third chapter, Jeremiah begins to preach to himself. He recalls that the Lord’s faithful love never ends. He remembers God’s great faithfulness and mercies each morning. The declaration on Jeremiah’s lips is the Lord is my inheritance, and I will hope in Him! He is good, and He alone is my salvation!
If the past year was unkind to you, friend—dare to hope.
If this new year looks overwhelming or without promise—dare to hope.
If you feel alone, broken, or in agony—dare to hope.
If you need to preach the Bible to yourself, do it and—dare to hope.
Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 23.18
Let us launch into 2024, daring to hope that God is still in the business of being all we need Him to be! Amen.
NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. All rights reserved.
Briefing the Bible. by Dr. J. Vernon McGee. © 2020 Thru the Bible. Page 149.
A beautiful reminder to hope. Thank you, my friend.