There is a lot to be said about being brave and being scared and being both scared and brave at the same time. I can’t remember who said this quote, “Being brave is being afraid but saddling up anyway”! And that is exactly what entire nations have had to do these past few years. Many people have lost loved ones and colleagues, and friends. Many have lost businesses, jobs, homes and found themselves facing circumstances that they never ever dreamed possible. And yet they are still standing to face another minute, hour, day, week, month or year.
As we have entered 2022, I must say that despite all that we, as a people, are facing…I am encouraged. Why, because hope is still alive. Hope is that quiet expectation that something good will come out of all of this. Hope is expecting that trouble don’t last always and that the sun will shine again. Hope is knowing that, for the saint, to be absent in the body is to be present with the Lord. Hope is family and friends coming together whenever and however possible to reaffirm love and care for one another. Hope is a place to call home, food on the table, clothes on our backs, shoes on our feet, jobs to go to, walking in divine health and sometimes it is not having shelter, sparse clothing, little or no food and questionable health. But nonetheless God is still God, and we are still standing!