The Year of Hope...

Most of you have been reading my blog long enough to know that each year I try to come up with a theme.

2005...The Year of Wandering
2006...The Year of Clarity
2007...The Year of the Piñata

While I know it's a little late in coming, I've finally decided my theme for 2008.

(Drum roll, please...)

2008...The Year of HOPE

I know. It's not quite as clever as the 'pinata deal' but for whatever reason, that word continues to emerge into the forefront of my mind. It's been working it's way around my thoughts and heart for quite some time, and I guess I can't deny its place any longer.

HOPE.

This is what I deeply believe He's calling me to in my personal walk and, yes, this is what I deeply believe He's calling us (believers) to in this hurting world.

William Sloan Coffin writes, "Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible."

A french proverb states, "Hope is the dream of a soul awake."

George Iles says, "Hope is faith holding out its hand in the darkness."

And Emily Dickinson says this, "Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all."

Hope.

Holding out its hand in the darkness. Never stopping. Arousing a passion for the possible. The dream of a soul awake.

This is my prayer for 2008.

Out of pain and darkness, let HOPE emerge.