Hope waits just around the corner

And then there’s hope.

It’s what we hold onto, right? Hope for a better day.

I’m a big believer in hope. If I have the willingness to accept whatever comes along, my hope for tomorrow strengthens.

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Hope is on my mind and heart a lot these days, these last few weeks. I wonder what this new year brings. It’s a completely blank slate, and I’d be lying if I said that didn’t make me nervous.

So, I rest on hope.

I told a story the other day of my first New Year’s Eve sober. Dial that back six months to July 5, 2006, when it was IMPOSSIBLE to stop drinking. I attended my first 12-step meeting on July 6, 2006, and guess what? It was suddenly POSSIBLE to stop drinking.

I walked with no hope into a room full of sober strangers. I walked out an hour later with phone numbers and a purpose I never knew existed. Hope kept me coming back.

That’s what hope does. It reveals what I never saw coming.

I have this analogy about changing seasons. I’m in an art museum, and God is the tour guide. He shows me a painting, and it’s perfect. Not a thing wrong with the painting. Incredible colors, shapes, and hidden mysteries. I am perfectly content to sit and stay with this painting for the entire tour.

God, though, motions me along to another hallway. He can see around the corner. I can’t. I want to stay with the perfect painting. He tells me that this exhibit is about to close.

“What’s next,” he says, “is better.”

That’s what I’m left with today. The promise of a better tomorrow. The promise of hope.

Our community is undergoing significant change. Some people like it. Some are not happy at all. Everyone has an opinion, and that’s why we’re here.

It’s my hope that the community we know as Citrus County continues to gel in 2026. Man, we are so tight. Like a large family, we bicker and complain. At the day’s end, though, our hearts are in the right place.

I love this community. I get to write about it five days a week in any manner I see fit. Readers respond, and conversation takes place. Citizens who paid little attention to local government a few years ago now watch County Commission meetings online. They participate. This blog helps.

I’d like to say I’m all ready to roll come Jan. 2. Everything is a challenge these days. My friend Steph the Barber is constantly texting me, “You got this!” Meaning, plow through the discomfort. Faith, trust, and action all feed hope.

Each day is a little easier than the one before. My ex-wife, Jean, sent me a lovely piece of artwork containing Psalm 71:14, “But as for me, I will always have hope…”

No idea what God has for me around the corner. I guess we could all say the same thing, right? But my hope is a better day for us all.

That’s a wrap on 2025. I hope and pray a special ‘26 for my entire Citrus County family.

Be safe this week. See you next year, friends.

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