Can a Weary World Rejoice?

The words of a familiar Christmas song have been haunting me like Jacob Marley’s ghost:

A thrill of hope
The weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks
A new and glorious morn.

Do those words sound hollow to you? Unrealistic? Pollyanna? To many people that I’ve spoken with they do. With the climate crisis, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, political gridlock, racial injustice and an election season heating up, where are the reasons to rejoice? Where can we find hope that a “new and glorious morn” is ahead?

I remain unyieldingly optimistic and hopeful about the future. How is that possible? Here are some steps to consider:

Go on a Media Diet

I haven’t watched television news in nearly 15 years. I rarely read the newspaper. Why? Because they offer a warped view of humanity and the world. They focus on the negative and engender fear. They are Chicken Little on a screen. So how do I know what’s going on in the world? I listen to about 10 minutes of news from sources that are ranked as close to neutral and unbiased as possible (You’ll find a helpful media chart here) and dive deeper when I want or need to know more. The phrase, “You are what you eat” applies to our media consumption as well as our food consumption. So, what’s on your media buffet, and how is it shaping you, your view of humanity and the world? Is it engendering fear or hope? 

Pay Attention to Your Lens

Our beliefs and the stories we tell ourselves shape our vision. They become the lens through which we view and experience the world. If we are convinced that people are inherently evil and out to get us, that’s the lens we’ll use to view humanity. And we’ll find all sorts of evidence to support our assumption. But the opposite is also true. If we believe that people are inherently good, we’ll see evidence of humanity’s goodness everywhere. I choose to believe the best about people, and I find that I’m not often disappointed.

Practice Gratitude

Few things have shaped my mind and my heart quite like the regular practice of gratitude. And that’s no coincidence. Research reveals that practicing gratitude creates an abundance mindset and has a positive impact on both our mental and physical health. Keeping a gratitude journal or simply spending a few minutes each day focusing on even the smallest things that you’re grateful for can shift us from a “not enough” worldview to a “more than enough” worldview.

Serve Something Bigger than Yourself

So much of what feels broken in our world seems out of our control, and when we lack agency we can easily slip into despair. So, doing what we can do to make a difference in our corner of the world can fuel our sense of hope. Volunteer your time. Support a cause that’s near and dear to your heart. As Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” It’s a big world, and our challenges are great, but each of us can make a difference and all of us together can change the world.

Have a Little Faith

Albert Einstein famously said, “I think the most important question facing humanity is, ‘Is the universe a friendly place?’ This is the first and most basic question all people must answer for themselves.” And Einstein, one of the greatest minds of the modern era, concluded, “...if we decide that the universe is a friendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to create tools and models for understanding that universe. Because power and safety will come through understanding its workings and its motives….. God does not play dice with the universe,”

I was a pastor for 36 years, and while I’ve ditched a lot of dogma I still choose to believe that there is more going on in this world than our eyes can see, and that the universal force that we call “God” is for us, not against us. You don’t have to be religious to embrace that same hope, and hope matters.

So…can a weary world rejoice? Despite the challenges, despite the pain, violence and injustice, I believe we can rejoice. And live in hope.

Now go be a reason for someone else to have hope.

I wish you and yours a blessed and hope-filled holiday season.