New Year Hope

 

As I write this post at the end of 2025, I can’t help wondering where the year has gone! 

     I love Christmas music, and I have enjoyed listening to little else over the past month. However, I must confess that there are two songs I find particularly irritating. 

     The first is John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” with its lyric, “And so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun.” 

     Maybe it’s just me that tends to hear that question in a slightly accusatory manner – what have you done this year? Have you actually achieved anything? 

     Perhaps I’m just feeling sensitive about the fact that as I look back over 2025, I don’t seem to have achieved very much when it comes to writing. There are a couple of projects I’ve made progress with – projects where other people have set the deadlines – but when it comes to my own writing, I’ve accomplished less than I have for several years. 

     Of course there are reasons for this, but it can feel discouraging. 

     The second Christmas song that annoys me is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” with the line, “Next year, all our troubles will be out of sight.” 

     I’ve complained about this lyric for years to be told by a relative that it was written during World War Two and people needed hope. I understand that to some degree, but it’s just not true! Next year all our troubles will not be out of sight – or if the troubles we have now are, then there will be new ones to take their place! (This is turning into a very cheerful, uplifting post, isn’t it?) 

     In fact, I feel quietly hopeful about 2026. I am fortunate to be able to take a two-week break over Christmas, and I always enjoy taking time to reflect on the past year, to set goals and make plans. There is a potential writing opportunity which excites me, and I also have plans to establish some good habits in order to be more productive this year. 

     However, I’m not naïve enough to believe that a new year means an end to all our troubles or that we will magically reach new levels of discipline and creativity in order to perfectly achieve our goals. 

     As Christians, our hope must be rooted in something deeper than our achievements or our favourable circumstances. 

     One of my favourite Christmas songs is, “O Holy Night,” and I love the lyric: 

“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!
O night divine! O night when Christ was born!” 

     Whether you ended 2025 feeling satisfied with your accomplishments or wishing you had achieved more, and whether you are beginning 2026 feeling excited and expectant, or exhausted and weary, may you know this hope – the hope of Immanuel, God with us – whatever joys or challenges the year ahead of us may hold.

Lesley Crawford blogs at Life In The Spacious Place and contributes regularly at Gracefully Truthful. She has written One Big Story, a Bible curriculum for school groups and contributed to various anthologies, including the ACW anthology, "Merry Christmas, Everyone" and "The Jesse Tree Anthology".