Guest Post - 3 Guideposts & 1 Prayer for 2023, by Rev. Hollis Hiscock

Please welcome my Dad - Rev. Hollis Hiscock - as today's guest blogger!

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3 Guideposts & 1 Prayer for 2023

“Thank God 2022 is over! Hopefully 2023 will be much, much better.”

These sentiments have been echoed by many people in varying situations around the globe.

So, as we journey daily into the evolving future,
may these three guideposts and one prayer
help us navigate our personal, communal, and global life encounters.

Hand of God

The first guidepost comes from Sunday School teacher, poet, and college professor Minnie Haskins. Standing near a second story balcony window at dusk, looking down a long driveway leading to a gate which opened onto the street and the unknown, she compared it with a new year or new journey and wrote:

I said to the one who stood at the gate of the year,
"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown";
and they replied,
"Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than a light, and safer than a known way."
So, I went forth, and finding the hand of God, trod gladly into the night,
and God led me towards the hills and the breaking of the day.

Never Alone

The second guidepost comes from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel. This song of comfort and encouragement was included to help a person coping with a devasting life situation. It is a reminder that we are never walking alone – God and other human beings are by our side.

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark.
At the end of the storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.

Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho’ your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
And you’ll never walk alone.
You’ll never walk alone.

A Divine Perspective 

The third guidepost comes from St. Paul and Jesus Christ. 

In the Bible’s New Testament, Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans (8:38-39): 

"I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Similarly, Jesus/God promised (Matthew 28:20): 

“I am with you always.”

A Prayer to Help 

This prayer, with which St. Paul concluded his letter to the Christians living in the city of Corinth (2 Corinthians 13:14) several decades after Jesus’ resurrection, may be a good mantra for us to repeat often as we traverse time and space.

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with us all.”

Amen.
Happy New Year!

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The Reverend Hollis Hiscock 

is Interim Priest-in-Charge of 

St. John’s Church, Burlington, Ontario. 

You can read his 2022 Christmas message 

A "Way" in a "Lodge of Broken Bark"  

HERE