I WOULDN'T BUT IF I DID

 There are many out there in the blogging and non-blogging world who make a habit of picking a "Word for the Year".

I have no criticism of this habit, and if it works for you---please go for it.  I have never done this.  My speed would be more like a word for a day---at the most.  My mind is like a jack rabbit on steroids in a valley of carrot patches.  It is really difficult to settle on one word when so many words are constantly spinning around in my head.  I can get fixated---and that is in my list of posts to come---but I am more likely to have a barrage of words spinning around faster than I can get them down on paper.  AND we all know---at this point in life--it can get lost in the black hole of my head if I do not write it down.

BUT---at this current moment---I do have a word I have actually been thinking about for two days straight---(that may be a record)-

NOW---I am NOT speaking of the hope I might have that I will get in the best physical shape of my lifetime---while all the time having no plan to do anything about it.  In fact you could rest assured I will probably fall back into my sloth like ways within days or maybe even hours of the calendar turning over to a new year.  At a very minimum as soon as any semblance of a half way good excuse comes along it will suffice in giving up on that hope.

Nor am I speaking of the hope that I might look in the mirror tomorrow and the reflection will be a 50 year old me (somehow 50 seemed a non-greedy and perhaps possible age).  Without a miracle of time reversal--it is just not going to happen.  Too much time in the sun, light skin which wrinkles best of all skin types, and a slender build (we all know they take fat from other parts of your body to fill in those time cracks criss-crossing the face) with not enough fat to fill the canyons of time are markers of no hope.

No I am not speaking of hope for an event to occur when there is no possibility of its occurrence.  NOT a "Pipe Dream" hope---not a I will throw this out there and see if the "Gospel of Prosperity" has any credence.  What I am talking about--is the hope we have that allows us to get out of the bed in the morning.  The hope which allows us to go through some REALLY difficult times, and yet still continue on.    That hope which Webster defines as "a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen." SO our desire is not enough to bet on the possibility of something happening---it must be accompanied by the expectation that it could happen.  Desmond Tutu defines hope so well in this quote~

"Hope is being able to see that there is light

despite all the darkness"

If you look at the photo at the top of the post, you will notice there is a key attached to the word "Hope".  If a picture is better than a thousand words, this is the epitome of what I am trying to say.  There HAS to be some key to why you have hope something will occur- times will get better.  There has to be some substance behind your "feeling".  The "KEY" to hope we have as Believers is Jesus.  HE is the reason, we can know it will get better.  He is our hope through His redemption of us.  This world we know is fallen and it seems to be in a huge mess---but our future has hope---and the key to that hope we profess is Jesus.  He tells us so-

"For to this end we toil and strive,

because we have our hope set on the living God,

who is the Savior of all people,

especially for those who believe."

I Timothy 4:10

HAPPY NEW YEAR, DEAR FRIENDS!