Dec 21, 2016 is the shortest day of this year – the winter solstice.
It is also obviously the longest night. Some traditions mark this day as a day to remember loved ones who have passed away or to mourn or grieve hurts and abuses. Some traditions mark this day as one of the days of Advent, a time of preparation for the coming of Christmas, the birth of the Messiah.
Regardless of your tradition or your observance of the longest night of the year, the sun will rise on December 22 – or at least it has every year so far. It’s a good bet that whatever else may happen on December 22, the sun will indeed rise.
Sometimes that’s all the hope we get – the sun will rise again another day.
It takes very little faith to hope and believe that the sun will rise, doesn’t it? So perhaps we ought to consider other sources or reasons for hope to accompany the fact that the sun will rise.
What does take faith is believing that you have the ability and the gifts to make the most of each day. This is where many people get bogged down – they have no faith in themselves. For whatever reason, or for no reason at all, some folks just don’t have faith they can move forward.
My hope for each of us, myself included, is that come this December 22, we begin the day with the idea that during that day we will serve one person in some way. It can be as simple as opening a door for someone and saying, “have a good day,” or something a bit more complex like visiting a shut-in at a local nursing home or doing the grocery shopping for a friend who might be unable to do the shopping on their own.
Then at the end of the day, just before bed, remember the person who you served. Let yourself believe your kindness made a difference in their life. Build on that belief and begin to have faith that you have brought a bit of the unexpected into someone else’s life. The unexpected you have offered is hope.
Before long you will be offering hope to others on a daily basis by your acts of kindness and concern. Offer hope to others long enough and you will experience that hope has found a home in your heart. Then long days, short days, long nights, short nights, hope will abide in you and you will abide in hope.
You and have the ability to do this, just as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow and every other day of the year. You and I are agents of hope.
Yes. It is good to be reminded of the power of kindness and how it strengthens those to whom we are kind but even more so it brings us strength and hopefulness in our own darkness.
Thank you Carolyn for your feedback. Did you change you email address? I appreciate your comments.