During this quiet holiday in Arizona, I’ve been reading posts about the words friends have chosen for 2022. Although I didn’t really seek one, a word came to me the other night when sleep became difficult.

Strength. Ah, this will do. Whatever lies ahead, we’ll need various kinds of strength–energy, mental stamina, physical skill, and emotional steadiness. This, we can count on.

As usual, Lance is taking all sorts of elk and deer photos here, and this one seemed perfect for this post. This little fellow looks a bit like us right now as we await what the new year brings.

Dubious, hopeful, contemplative, puzzled . . . hesitant and frightened. Dare he trust the guy standing on our deck to snap this shot?

Nearly eighty years ago, soldiers in the horrific Battle of the Bulge surely experienced such emotions. We can’t even begin to imagine what they endured or the level of their terror–would the war ever end?

In times like the present, it behooves us to consider other times that required strength and endurance. Still, we may feel somewhat the same. Dare we trust?

Recently, a Ralph W. Emerson quote struck me as appropriate for this season.

“Be not the slave of your own past–plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience, that shall explain and overlook the old.”

Another one of his writings applies, too. “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”

All that history teaches us, and all we have seen in 2021, instructs us that God’s promise to “be with us in trouble” (Psalm 91:15) stands firm. In spite of expecting more “trouble” ahead, we plunge onward, dive deep, and trust.