A Better Year Ahead?: Opening Our Eyes to Hope

By Mel Lawrenz

Moving into better days ahead means learning how to accept what we cannot change and becoming wiser about what we do influence.

2020 was a very difficult year. All of life was disrupted for almost everyone on the planet because of the global pandemic. We have been isolated from each other. Businesses have failed. Families are tense. Racial tensions have flared up. Political discourse has become like warfare. People became weary and confused and stressed.

Some have lost hope.

The year ahead can be better. We need to open our eyes to hope. God gives us hope. Jesus taught about hope that comes from living in the blessings and responsibilities of the kingdom of God. Sometimes that hope requires us to act.

In A Better Year Ahead?: Opening Our Eyes to Hope, Mel Lawrenz offers perspectives on the patterns of our personal lives like:

Sizing up a difficult yearDealing with lossWhat should I believe?Can anything good come out of suffering?Faith, hope, and loveWhy did Jesus say, "Do not worry?"Prayer as a daily patternFinding life in reading ScriptureMaking complicated decisionsFinding peace through orderHaving conviction and toleranceDealing with doubt... and more.

A Better Year Ahead? also includes prayers and supplemental resources for charting a better way forward.

About the Author:

Mel Lawrenz has been a pastor for many years and has been on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He has a Ph.D. in the history of Christian thought, and has authored numerous books with InterVarsity Press, Zondervan, Baker, and other publishers, including A Chronicle of Grief: Finding Life After Traumatic Loss (IVP, 2020).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0997406364
• ISBN13: 9780997406368
• Release Date: November 2020
• Publisher: Wordway
• Length: 134 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"