If this is the end…

The end of 2023 is so close that it might as well already be here. For many this is the annual experience equivalent to Thursday nights in college, or Friday afternoons in the office (my fellow Millennials understand). We are so close that maybe we just don’t have to do anything or try anymore. The clock still says their is time left, but what’s the point?

Honestly, I feel this pretty strongly. I sense myself powering down for the holidays in anticipation of fun, family, presents, and over-indulging. I want to rest. I want to stop. But I also feel the tension of their is always more to do, more to think through, and more to care about. Always more. Christmas, a time of hope is set very nicely at the end of the year to remind us of where our hope comes from. It is not in adequate time off or family fusion without any chemical explosions. It is not in the knowledge that once the holidays are over I’ll crush it on my own. It is not in stuffing ourselves fuller than the turkey from last month. The prophet Isaiah reminds us…

Isaiah 43:1-2

But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
    he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.

My hope is in the Lord who created me, redeemed me, called me by name, takes personally responsibility and ownership over my life, and protects me. So if this is the end, as we power down at the end of the year, let’s look again to the hope we have that casts out fear of the unknown and the ways we grasp for purchase in that unknown.

To him who was, is, and ever will be.

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