Dear Friends

I was reading about the poet William Wordsworth the other day. In his younger years he was a
passionate liberal, a young romantic with radical ideas. He even signed up to the French
republican movement, siding with the revolutionaries of Robespierre, which meant that his writing
and movements were carefully monitored by the British authorities. Years later, however, he had
become a conservative reactionary, a bastion of the establishment, and his views had altogether
changed.
Similar stories can be found across the centuries, the heady idealism of youth turning in later life
to staid conformism. Plans to change the world give way to an acceptance of the way things are,
an inexorable caving in to a world-weary disillusionment. We’re not exempt from that – including
people of Christian faith! Though we may start off believing that the world’s ills can be righted,
that lives can be changed, that prayer and faith can transform even the worst of situations, as the
years pass and the same evils persist it can get harder to keep that vision alive. We can become
disheartened, despondent, cynical.
As we stand on the brink of 2026 I’m going to remind myself that despite the recurring evils that
blight our world and the depressingly constant flaws of human nature, God is at work building his
kingdom – or as John wites in his Book of Revelation, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He
will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe
every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’
The whole of scripture urges us to never give up on the world or to stop believing that God is at
work within it – and it’s with that attitude in mind that I’m going to approach 2026 because it’s
amazing what God can do, the new beginnings he can make through his redeeming, renewing love
– join in that enterprise, and never lose hope! Happy New Year!

Yours in Christ

Simon