Hope for 2025

 

A social media influencer in Southern California wanted to help people displaced from the fires, so he set up his hotdog cart in the Rose Bowl parking lot ready to feed 500 people. He posted it on social media to feed people. When people arrived, he got a surprise. Most people came to donate items.

With more social media posts, word spread and more people came with donations. One restaurant owner in Long Beach asked people to bring donations to his restaurant. He then brought two rental box trucks to the pop-up donation center.

The local news broadcasted it. It grew so large that they had to move since the first responders used the Rose Bowl parking lot. The pop-up donation center continues and people who have lost everything can get items that they need now.

It all started because someone wanted to bring hope to the hopeless. When the ashes fall, hope must rise so we can rebuild.

I started the New Year full of hope. I organized my social media posts for the month of January, including my blogs, worked on my daily habits, and on New Year’s Day saw one of the best Rose Bowl Parades in the last decade.  Then, on Tuesday January 7^th, fires raged in the Pacific Palisades. Then, other fires began erupting throughout Southern California including the Pasadena area.

Even though I no longer live in Los Angeles County, whenever the wind begins to rise, my heart races with thoughts if we are next here in Orange County. (This county sits south of Los Angeles County and about thirty miles from the fires and further.) My heart breaks for all the people who lost everything.

I still pray for the people in North Carolina and Florida where hurricanes devastated their homes, and I pray for Maui, another city where a fire destroyed communities. I don’t care if the people have great wealth or live paycheck to paycheck. I don’t care if they identify as a different religion, ethnicity, or gender than me. I care about humanity.

I had planned to write about hope. I believe that the start of the New Year brings us a renewed hope to do more and be better human beings. Once the fires broke out, I realized that many people began to lose hope, most of it in humanity, but they didn’t know the truth.

People brought food to the firefighters. The In ‘N Out truck gave free meals to the first responders, every non-profit organization has called for donations in all areas of Los Angeles, and people have responded with bringing what they can.

People lose hope when they sit in the darkness alone. The residents of Los Angeles have let the victims of these fires know that they are not alone. The media does not report all these acts of hope because they only want to share the bad news and the news that will get the most clicks revealing the tragedy.

We cannot lose hope even if our plans get shifted and changed. Jesus brings us His love and grace no matter what we have done. He reminds us that He will never leave our side. With Jesus in our lives, we must bring Him to those who have experienced a tragedy.

So, my goal changed for the New Year with hope. Look around your community and find the one area in which you can do something or donate. With your one act of kindness, you will give hope to the hopeless, which is what we just celebrated less than a month ago with the birth of Jesus.

 Let’s be the living hope for others. Who knows what will rise from these ashes. I hope it will be homes full of love for Jesus and other people. That can happen if we all just share one part of the hope of Jesus that we have.