Thought for the week: The source of new year confidence

Although Anna Laetitia Waring was ultimately to be received into the Anglican communion, she was born into a Quaker family, and shared the acute social conscience which marked so many of that fellowship.

The great social reforms of the nineteenth century – the abolition of slavery, the reform of prisons and the improvement of factory working conditions – were all pioneered by deeply committed Christians. Their campaigns prompted C.S. Lewis to observe that the Christians who thought most about the future life were exactly the same people who did most to improve the quality of life here on earth.

Someone else observed that Christians should be exercised not just about souls but about drains, and the unsanitary conditions in which so many people lived. Anna Laetitia Waring was of that noble company. Knowing that released prisoners were vulnerable and prone to lapse back into a life of crime, she became an enthusiastic supporter of the Discharged Prisoners Relief Society, and regularly visited prisons on behalf of the Society.

This devout lady was also a prolific hymnwriter, but one hymn above all others has placed the Christian church in her debt. The hymn expresses serene Christian faith, and the theme is evident in its two opening lines: ‘In heavenly love abiding, no change my heart shall fear’. Check it out in your hymnbook, or on the internet.

Each verse envisages the dangers and demands of the future, but ends with a confident assertion. In verse one she speaks of the storms that may roar about her, but affirms; ‘my Father’s arms surround me, how can I be afraid?’. The second verse alludes to the 23rd Psalm, often called ‘The Shepherd Psalm. The author declares confidently ‘His love deserts me never and I will walk with Him’.

The third verse speaks of the unknown future, and the things which ‘I have not seen,’ but ends with this confidence; ‘My Saviour has my treasure and He will walk with me’.

When January 2022 dawned, Boris Johnston was Prime Minister, Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne, Europe was at peace, and inflation was at a modest 2% or so. How things have changed as 2022 ends? Three Prime Ministers have occupied 10 Downing Street in the intervening 12 months, and Charles III is the new resident in Buckingham Palace; Europe is witnessing the systematic Russian destruction of Ukraine, and reduced energy supplies has caused a worldwide cost of living crisis.

We have no conception of what 2023 may hold. Undoubtedly it will bring both joy and pain. Yet believing people can face the uncertain future confident that this is God’s world and that nothing, no matter how devastating, can separate us from God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ (Romans 8; 39).

We can sing with Anna Laetitia Waring, ‘My Saviour has my treasure and he will walk with me’.