On the other hand, "This is the day the Lord has made!" But, why did you make it, Lord? What purpose did you have in mind?

It is a good question to ask as we begin the new year of 2008. You may have noticed in 2007, for example, that this will be a presidential election year in the U.S.A.

When one looks at the array of possible candidates, when one examines their views on issues like abortion or embryonic stem-cell research (mostly in favor, no one seems to be taking a strong stand against), one might at least be tempted to ask, should I get up this morning?

I give the news at breakfast here at Madonna House several mornings a week, just so we can carry with us through the day an awareness of the situation of the world and of the struggles of our fellow human beings and pray for them. We need to know what’s happening, and people can supplement my brief report by reading, etc.

It’s been a relief to be released from the shackles of getting that morning news only from CBC’s (Canadian Broadcast Corporation) radio broadcasts.

That perspective is, in my view, rather limited and rather biased. The Internet has at least opened up the possibility of getting information from diverse sources, and thus may be a tiny bit closer to the truth of what is happening.

But that "truth," if it be accurate, is sobering: endless conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Sudan, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, the Congo, Sri Lanka, Burma. The list goes on and on.

An interesting observation I’ve made over the course of several months is that the news doesn’t really change that much. Stories I read in June are not that different from those I read in December, though from time to time, hope of real change emerges, such as with North Korea and the dismantling of their nuclear weapons making capacity—maybe.

"Do you have any good news this morning?" I am sometimes asked by guests or staff. Not often! It’s hard to find on the international wires this "good news," which seems to happen—as it surely must or the whole world would have disintegrated by now—somewhere below the radar of most news agencies.

Well, there’s always the weather, which at least is still mostly out of our control and therefore "in God’s hands" more obviously than some situations. Maybe that is "good news," but then again, there are climate change issues and arguments about human causality even there. And so it goes.

Speaking of the subject "in God’s hands," there is solid theological support for the truth that all situations are in his hands—international, national, meteorological, personal. In fact, this is our one sure hope: in the face of both forces of nature and human freedom, there is another Agent ever at work.

It is the Lord, and he awaits our turning to him in faith each morning. His Holy Spirit has thoughts to share with us about this day: what we are to make of it and what he wants to do with it. Do you and I live as if this were true?

This is what enables us to "get up in the morning" with real hope: that this day is in his hands… really.

No amount of human plotting, scheming or stupidity can obliterate this truth. No measure of demonic intrusion can conquer it. No terrible force of nature is outside it, however terrible or impossible to fathom at the time. (Today, I am thinking of the flooding in the state of Tabasco, in southern Mexico.)

In the morning, our prayer, our offering, places everything in the hands of the One who turns all things to good for those who love him, if only we suffer with him so that we may be glorified with him (cf. Romans 8: 17, 28).

Our world may truly be in a terrible crisis right now. And yes, there are also signs of hope for peace in some places and of youth committed to God-centered values in some numbers. But the one Hope that is sure is God himself, offering salvation to all.

And what is this "salvation" but the grace to believe that this is the day the Lord has made. And the hope that goodness can find a way to triumph in it in however humble a fashion. And the love ever new that comes from God, defying all expectations that hatred and selfishness can extinguish it on this earth.

And so, Good Morning to you and Blessed New Year! It will indeed be "good" and "blessed" if we receive it all from the Lord as his gift. He will graciously give us a share in Christ’s own offering, a dying that infallibly leads to life.

Why are you cast down, my soul, why groan within me? Hope in God, I will praise him still, my Savior and my God (Psalm 42).