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2022 is here!

Happy New Year, Folks!

With each day turning into the next, we managed to scale through another pandemic-ridden year to enter 2022, with joy and gladness and hope for a better year. What are your expectations and plans for this year? Well, before I jump into it, let me apologize for my prolonged silence on this platform. At some point, I got discouraged and winded and decided to take an unplanned break. Thankfully, I am back rejuvenated and ready to tackle life again. And what a time to return! I spent the Christmas and New Year holidays fighting for my health, so I missed all the merriment. Am I glad and thankful to be well?!

So, what is your story? Or it’s best we leave that in the past and look forward with hope. That is my strong word at the beginning of this year, hope. The Bible says that faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is love. Hope is placed in the same category as faith and love. This shows how important and powerful it is. There is also a saying that goes “while there’s life, there’s hope”. I like that. It summarizes how I feel right now. Things may not be exactly as I want them to be right now, but I have hope. Hope that things can turn around. Hope for a better tomorrow. Hope that God will change my situation in the blinking of an eye when the appointed time for my change comes. Hope is big.

They say that those who take their own lives have lost all hope. That is why they are brave enough to do the deed. No more hope for tomorrow. They have totally given up. When there’s hope, even the littlest trace of it, the heart can wait and endure for a little bit longer. Hope then becomes like a tiny dot of light in a very dark world, a candle blinking in the darkest room. Hope brings tears, a relief that someone somewhere still remembers my name and is going to offer help in my time of need.

God is a God of hope. Romans 15:13 states that “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” NKJV. When we abound in hope, it is evidenced by joy and peace. This hope comes from the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not an ordinary hope. It is a type of resilient hope that is undeterred by the situations or circumstances we find ourselves in. With this hope, our eyes are raised high, lifted to God, refusing to engage with the situations that contend with our joy and peace. When the Holy Spirit fills us with hope, we can laugh when things are worth crying about. We know for sure, we are assured that our Father, the God of hope, is working in the background to sort us out; either by solving the issue or giving us the grace to pass through it unscathed, so that we look back later and give all the glory to Him alone.

This is a good year. Yes, we will have challenges. Despite those, this is a year where we are armed with hope to overcome every obstacle, to come to multiple places of joy and thanksgiving breaking out from us. Where we cried last year, we will laugh aloud this year. We have acquired strength, stamina and staying power. Indeed, God is arisen to give power to the weak and to increase strength. Ah! How good God is.

So, have you set your goals for the year yet? I’m not talking about resolutions, but goals. Those goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based (SMART goals). We must have them. They help navigate the year, assist us to reach for the heights. Don’t let January end without setting them and working on an execution and achievement plan. The year has started counting. Don’t be left behind!

It’s a joy to be back. Have a wonderful year ahead!

 

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