All you need to do is take one glance at the news, and you’ll see it. This blurry film of despondency that seems to cast a haziness on all we see and hear.

The world is chock full of threats and despair. Sadness abounds. Anxiety mounts. The political future of our country is uncertain. New fears pop up every day. Cancer rages on. Hardships press in on every side.

We’ve just come off the holidays and we’re still lingering in the revelry of family gatherings and festive celebrations. But sometimes when we look around, the standard phrase, “Happy New Year!” just doesn’t seem to be sufficient.

[Tweet “We need more than happy. Happy is not enough. “]

There is far too much sorrow in the world for happy to be enough.

We need something deeper — something lasting.

Something eternal.

[Tweet “We need a peace that passes understanding. We need a joy buried down deep.”]

So deep that even the worst of earthly circumstances can’t shake it.

As believers, we have a little secret. We know something that most of the journalists at CNN and BBC and NBC don’t know.

When the headlines hit and we feel the walls shudder and our insides tremble, we’ve got a secret that hunkers down in the bunker, safe and secure. It stoops low with its arms wrapped around pillars of joy, firmly rooted in the shadows.

It’s the secret that we’ve already won.

[Tweet “We already have the victory, because of Christ.”]

Tragedies will come, and this year might not be a happy one — but in God’s grace, that is not the battleground where our hope lives or dies.

Even when our faith knocks faintly on the door, when we’re battered and shaking, broken from all we’ve witnessed, when our lips quiver and our weak arms are all scraped up from the wreckage — even then, He is faithful.

We need more than “Happy New Year.”

We need the author of hope. 

What do we do when “Happy New Year” isn’t enough?

Well, we can start by remembering three truths.

Click here to read them over at iBelieve.com.