“My One Word” has been a huge blessing in my journey of discipleship. Words like release, open, and straight paths have kept my heart focused on important lessons and God’s transforming work in and through me. I am deeply grateful for this spiritual practice. This year there are myriad reasons to lament and it would be easy to fall into dispair. But I choose to lament—to stand with those who are suffering, grieving, hurting, lonely, desperate, lost—with hop—because God’s Kingfom has already come and continues to come, and God’s will is being done on earth as it is in Heaven. I lament wirh hope because the Story is not over and because the One who holds all of history in a strong, victorious hand, is not done with me or with humanity. Hopeful lament!