New year, same old?

Another post that's a little past when I want to do it because of the holiday busyness.
A few days prior to New years eve I was thinking about the past year, as I and many others do on that occasion. Even now I find my thought process to be curious though. I quite honestly had the best year of my life in many ways in 2014 but still had the thoughts that I did.
Is that enough of a tease? Hopefully cause it's all I've got :-D. Now onto the jump and the majority of the post.
The thought that I had was that on the precipice of another calendar year things are kind of terrible. Is this all there is in life? Working and schedules and activities but constantly seeing the pain and brokenness in people all around me and in myself? It hit me so hard that I was crying as the thought raced through my mind.
Hopelessness really weighed on me. That loss and pain are so unavoidable.
But then another thought struck me. That our hope doesn't come through the things in life. Lasting hope, joy, love, only has one source. Jesus. so I immediately went from feeling hopeless and alone to being happy and peaceful.
Don't get me wrong, Jesus' presence doesn't guarentee that life is going to be all sunny days but it does offer the opportunity and incentive to not give up.
So maybe things will keep going they way have been in the world at large but to a man we are all able find the solid rock, the castle in the storms of life. That man Jesus can be that for all who would choose to follow.
It's a new year, things may be the same old same old but they don't have to be. And even if they are it doesn't have to be a bad thing. In fact it can be quite fantastic!