A Glass Half Full or Half Empty: How Do We Engage the New Year?

As we begin a new year, some of us focus on the possibilities and others focus on the probabilities; some of us hope for the best, and others expect the worst. Part of this is just personality, but religious traditions have a way of shaping these attitudes as well. Does your experience of your faith tradition generally see the world with a spirit of confidence, or does it weigh the world and find it wanting? What spiritual lens does it bring to the great tragedies and triumphs of life today? What do you anticipate in 2016 and why?