Goodness and light offer hope of a brighter 2021 - Leslie Newton

But of course, it always turned out the same. I’d not get through many pages before it started to look just like every other book of mine: a mixture of tidiness and scrawl; some good work, and some... less good!

Many people have a similar feeling of fresh possibilities at the turning of a New Year. It gives a natural opportunity to pause, reflect and hope for better things ahead.

Given the context of our world, it feels more important than ever to engage in that type of reflection this New Year. Of course, every January 1 coincides with particular challenges for some members of our community. But as 2021 dawns the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are having an impact on every single one of us.

And beyond the pandemic, the uncertainties of Brexit and the ever-deepening climate crisis have added further apprehension to many about their lives and livelihoods.

In this rather sobering landscape, perhaps some of us are feeling – returning to my school exercise book analogy – that the arrival of 2021 is rather like receiving a book that’s already dog-eared and full of ink stains.

Nonetheless, I want to write, on the first page of this New Year, “HOPE.” Yes, I’m stepping into 2021 with hopefulness. Why? Well, because amid all the challenges, Christmas has reminded me again that hope is born right in the heart of mess and darkness.

The Christmas story tells us that God gave up the perfection and light of heaven and chose instead to be born as a baby Jesus, in poverty and vulnerability. God came among us to be one of us, one for us and one with us. And I believe that God’s hope still comes to life in the messiness of the world. God still kindles light that shines in the darkness.

So, wherever we see goodness in the mess and light in the darkness – there is hope! And 2020’s turbulent days have revealed so many signs of hope.

Hope has been there, reflected in the selfless vocation and resilience of our ‘key workers’. Their service has been heroic and reminded us just how much we need one another for our communities to be strong and caring.

Hope has been born again and again in communities right across Yorkshire, in countless acts of unalloyed good in the midst of messiness, of inextinguishable lights piercing the darkness. It has broken out through local grass-roots movements as people have come together to help those who’ve been struggling the most.

Volunteers have been running food banks, befriending the lonely, advising those in debt, and supporting those with mental health challenges. Over the last few weeks projects like ‘Resurrection Bites’ in Harrogate and ‘Re:Uniform’ in Hull have worked tirelessly to provide hampers and presents so that hundreds of struggling families could enjoy something of Christmas.

So, yes, I’m writing HOPE in large bold letters on this first page of the New Year. HOPE, because even with all the challenges we still face, I know that messiness will continue to be transformed by goodness, and darkness will be pierced by light.

I have great aspirations for 2021. Firstly, that all these amazing local signs of hope will inspire a national – and international – renewal of goodness and light in our politics and economics.

My hope is also that the 2020 applause of key workers might be translated into a new, just economy that enables the flourishing of all life, and that liberates people from the shackles of debt. My hope is that the amazing grass-roots action might inspire more compassionate social policies where the poorest and most marginalised are at the centre.

One of my favourite definitions about hope is by Jim Wallis, a Christian social activist. He said: “Hope is believing despite the evidence and then seeing the evidence change.” When the evidence around us looks dominated by mess and darkness, I’m pinning my hope firmly in the goodness and light that is born in the midst of it.

I’m believing that change is possible. Together we can see the evidence change.

Together the mess and darkness can be overcome by goodness and light.

The Reverend Leslie M Newton is Chair of the Yorkshire North and East District of the Methodist Church.

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