The Christmas letter I wrote for many years has gradually morphed into this end of year update. It’s a little less personal, but enables me to give a brief description of what we’ve been doing to so many of you who have prayed for us, supported us and in general taken an interest in our lives.

Christmas in church is not Christmas without singing Joy to the World at least once. Few carols are as popular, yet none is as misunderstood.

In fact, Joy to the World is not a Christmas carol at all.

No longer.

I don’t think there’s ever been a year where the power of the media became such a subject of public focus. Somehow, we have always assumed — naively, perhaps — that for the most part what we saw and read was a reasonable representation of reality.

No longer.

If any group of people can mine gold out of the sludge of 2020, it’s us. Why? The answer is simple: Christians are in the hope business.

I find it interesting that there’s all sorts of teaching about faith, but very little about hope.

I think it’s because faith deals in tangible things: faith in God, faith in Christ, faith that the Bible is true, faith that God will protect us or help us in a given situation, faith for specific things we feel God has promised us.

A man I have great respect for, and whose life has touched untold numbers of people around the world, addressed our congregation this week on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. He reminded us how easy it is to move through life without clearly focussing on how much time we have left. His observation was that it isn’t till most people hit fifty that they begin to think about their legacy.