The year 2012 will be a challenging year:
At the Sunday School class party a few weeks ago, we shared prayer requests for the new year. In jest, I said, “My prayer is that I hope the Mayan’s are wrong.” The calendar “ends” on December 21, 2012. No doubt in the coming year, we will continue to hear dooms-day sayers and those who will predict disaster.
As a nation, the prophets of doom resonate at some deep level with the uncertainty we feel. Predictions of economic disaster, nuclear crisis, “wars and rumors of wars” abound. In all likelihood, the presidential election will be fraught with bitterness. 
However, let’s make this personal. As you enter 2012, the crisis troubling you may not be brewing half-way around the world, but in your own heart and home.
For 2012, let me share a good word with you:
In 1939, a little more than 70 years ago, the King of England, along with the British Empire, faced deep and dark uncertainty. The king’s older brother had abdicated the throne in order to wed the American, Mrs. Simpson. The clouds of war were rising on the continent of Europe. (The film, “The King’s Speech,” is an excellent account of the story.)
For his Christmas Broadcast, the King read a verse from a poem written by Louise Haskins 20 years earlier entitled, “The Gate of the Year.” Someone had hand copied the poem and sent it to the king: You may discover that this is the good word you need as you enter 2012:
I said to a man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown,” and he replied, “God out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be better than a light and safer than a known way.” So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.