A theme for the New Year

December  (let's throw October and November in there too) was a month where the evil one tried to steal my hope.

I was listening to a talk and the speaker was like "Drop. Kick. Ok, bye." That's how I feel about the evil one trying to steal my hope. I ain't about it.

But every time he tried to rip the gift of hope out of my hands, I kept my hands wrapped firmly around it, and sometimes, when I wanted to let go because it was too hard to hold onto, Mama Mary came, slipped her hands around mine, and we held on together (our Mother, she is just).

What do I want to say?

Bye satan. I'm not interested in what you're selling anymore. I ate it up for a while, but I'm kind of over it.

I'm done believing the lies you've told me about myself, about my identity, about my femininity, about the relationships in my life (do you hear me? Do you hear me?), and most germane right now...I am done believing the lie that there is no hope for me.

Hope for the future and the desires that I have. Hope that there is healing. Hope that I don't have to hold onto the heaviness. Hope that I am not alone (I am never alone). Hope that even in the darkness, the heaviness, the hurt, and the pain of things - my Father is faithful (I know that I know that I know that this is true).

Do you see that cross? The one with  my Jesus nailed to it? The same Son of Man who came through a woman - barely older than a girl (that's my Mother)?

Yeah. (She kinda humiliated you, didn't she?)

That one. (I plan to do the same thing.)

That means I have hope.

And hope does not disappoint.