My grandfather once promised to buy me a new bicycle.  He made that promise many years ago, right after a politician had promised him that all elderly Americans would soon be given a bonus. Neither of us saw those promises come true. For many generations, promises have been a mainstay of hope for people seeking a better life. Even today, we are bombarded by promises of better jobs, better living, a better economy, and so on. So, are there any promises in which we can take hope?

Before he secured his fame as “Mark Twain,” the iconic American writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens started out seeking the wild and adventurous life of a Mississippi riverboat pilot. However, when Clemens discovered that piloting a riverboat was as much a demanding science as an adventure, he almost became too discouraged to continue, fearing that the demands of the job might steal the glory of the life he envisioned.

Cultures around the world have long viewed the shortest day of the year, December 21 or 22 (in the northern hemisphere) as a day for special ceremony and celebration. As the Christmas season—filled with the trappings of modern materialism cloaking ancient paganism—recedes into our memories, it is easy to have a negative view of the “winter solstice season” now behind us.

Whether it be concerning the ongoing “cultural wars” in the United States, other Western nations, as well as the State of Israel, the rising tide of Islamism in vast swaths of the world, the affairs of the ascendant People’s Republic of China, or the construction of the European Union, one question keeps being asked in various ways: What role, if any, should religion play in the affairs of society?

No matter who we are, no matter how or where we live, no matter our station in life, there comes a time when we all need somebody to “stand by us.” To stand by us and hold us up as we, too, need to be there to hold others up. In essence, to stand in the gap wherever the “wall” of rightful faith and living is breached.

Those of us whose lifespan goes back to the Great Depression can still recall the image of grown men selling pencils on street corners. The common attitude saw life as a day-to-day struggle for existence. The United States had stalled in its tracks, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a monumental job on his hands seeking to stir up a nation to get out and try. What a contrast from today’s economic difficulties, which seem to bring out a totally different attitude: “You owe me!” and “It’s my right!”