By James B. Ewers Jr. Ed.D.
Wishing, hoping and praying that the best is still yet to come. “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name”. These lyrics come from the hymn, The Solid Rock by Edward Mote in 1834.
This song should resonate with us today as 2026 is upon us. Our Christian beliefs have always been centered around faith and hope. Getting better and being better has always been our goal. We live our lives with that expectation.
What can we say about the year 2025? Well, first off, we must be thankful that God gave us life, health and strength. Being in our right mind is indeed a blessing.
Getting older makes us think about our younger days. Those were days when we thought we were invincible. We believed we didn’t have to worry about tomorrow. I believe we just made assumptions about life.
Equally important was how we treated senior citizens back in the day. For my circle of friends, we viewed them with great respect. We were fortunate that we learned some basic life tenets from them.
We opened doors for them, gave them our seats and carried their groceries. Those are just some of the home training lessons that we actualized each day. Our home training as children was the foundation for our wisdom today.
Getting older wasn’t something that was factored into our daily lives. As the phrase goes, we were just living for the weekend.
Senior citizens back then were volunteer philosophers. They weren’t paid to give advice and wisdom. As youngsters, we didn’t know when these wisdom talks would occur. These talks were all monologues. We just sat and listened. I can’t say we digested every word, but we got enough to know they cared about us.
Now, many years have passed between then and now. Families, careers, and friendships have all been flashpoints in our lives. They happened and we are still here.
We survived a lot of wrong turns, miscues and what-ifs over the course of our lives. With help, we escaped being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The year 2025 was a year that being our brother’s and sister’s keeper was put to the test. Our sensibilities were tested and our characters were challenged. Good and evil seemed to be standing side by side. Right and wrong were never apart.
Mouthing the words of hope and doing the actions of wrong made us wonder what’s going on? Passing laws that took away rights, abolishing long-standing offices and terrorizing innocent people all transpired during 2025.
Let us be encouraged in 2026. We must know that holding on to God’s unchanging hand must be ever present in our everyday lives. You and I know He’s an on-time God.
Some years ago, I was honored to have met Reverend Jesse Jackson. He is an iconic Civil Rights Legend. His oratory is awe-inspiring and his powerful words have stood the test of time.
Two of his phrases have stayed with me over the course of my life. “Keep hope alive” and “Never look down on anybody unless you are helping them up” are on the Mount Rushmore of great expressions. I believe we must keep them in our lexicons going forward in 2026.
We must put into practice these powerful monikers that will light our path for a promising future in 2026. While some doubt it, we are inextricably bound to each other. When some of us in America hurt, all of us in America hurt.
Neglecting one another is wrong. We can’t kick some to the curb and be smug about it. You see, the least of us matters. Kindness and goodwill must be our mantra.
Let us frame our conversations and engagements in a spirit of caring, civility and humanity.
