New Year Offers Hope

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by Hope; nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we must be saved by Faith; nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we must be saved by Love.”

Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian

I doubt that many people include January 1 in their list of favorite holidays, but I do.  I have always liked beginnings because they are another chance to start anew and thus a source of hope. No matter what has happened during the previous year, January 1 gives us pause to hope that the coming year will be better.

The biggest hope for many Americans in 2014, as it has been for several years now is that the economy, especially their own financial situation, will get better. Despite signs of economic recovery, millions of Americans of working age are still without a job. Many people around the world hope to be able to obtain the necessities of life in 2014: food, clothing, and shelter.

If world peace is an unrealistic hope, we can at least hope for a reduction in the violence and number of deaths caused by wars. The end of combat operations in Afghanistan is a source of such hope. If the end of gun violence in America is an unrealistic hope, we can at least hope for less violence and fewer deaths and no more tragedies like the massacre of children at Sandy Hook School in Newtown. We can also hope and pray that the families and friends of the Sandy Hook victims feel a little less pain than they did a year ago.

The second part of the Niebuhr quotation is inextricably linked to the first, because without belief in the possibility of a better life, or a better world, or just a better year, there would be no hope. We need faith not only in God but in our leaders, in our neighbors, and in ourselves. The faith and unity of the survivors of the Sandy Hook victims have borne fruit during 2013 in the form of stricter gun laws in Connecticut and other states. The Newtown families and friends established a website (sandyhookpromise.org), on which individuals can take the promise or pledge (see website). So far, over 300,000 have done so.

Ellen Goodman, long-time nationally syndicated columnist, expressed the type of faith needed in our country in a recent a few years ago. Her point was that the worst economic situation in America since the Great Depression will perhaps make more people realize what truly matters in life – and it’s not material possessions. Goodman frames the economic crisis as an opportunity for significant, long-term change in American values, and she expresses faith that it is possible.

In their new book One Can Make a Difference, Ingrid Newkirk and  Jane Ratcliffe offer the essays of 54 people, some famous, most unknown, who did something significant at some point in their lives. Both the authors and the people in their essays illustrate faith in human nature that we can always do better.

To illustrate the third part of the Niebuhr quotation, I would offer a few examples from my own experience writing for a local newspaper. Over the course of three years, I have met, interviewed, and written about  hundreds of people -including a grief counselor for young adults who have lost a relative or close friend, a man who began an organization to help kids with special needs, a nurse who opened a clinic to provide medical care for the uninsured, a caregiver for older adults, a man who collects and distributes food each week to honor his young son who died, lay missionaries, church groups, ministers, and many others - who, with the help of a spouse, friend, relative, or co-worker, or on their own, demonstrate love for others through their vocation or their avocation. Once more, I cite the Sandy Hook families and friends demonstrating love not only for their own children but for all children in this country by working together to improve the society in which children live and grow up.