In this week’s SojoMail: Some of our most hope-inducing stories of the past year, as well as a reflection and a new movie that both teach us how to grieve well.

8 Stories That Gave Us Hope in 2025

Betsy Shirley writes that this year has been full of real challenges, but the darkness did not overcome the light:

The church has a funny sense of time. When everyone else is looking at Spotify Wrapped and other year-in-reviews, the Christian liturgical calendar has already turned the page, insisting a new year is already here. You’d be forgiven for thinking of Advent as an end-of-year marker, but as any theology nerd will remind you, Advent is the first season in the church’s annual cycle, not the last. Which is to say: The church starts the new year not with champagne or fireworks, but with a season of waiting.

In the Northern Hemisphere, this year-end/year-beginning coincides with colder days, longer nights, and bare trees. And it’s in this moment—when it’s gray and freezing and most things look dead—that Christians make a daring claim: This bleakness all around us is not the end, but a beginning. The new life God promises begins in the dark.

You’ve felt some bleakness this year, I suspect: So many of the stories Sojourners published were stories of loss: jobs, good health, a sense of safety, people we loved, or dreams we had for the future. We grieve.

And amid all this, Advent has the nerve to whisper: God is at work. In our grief over all that’s ended, we’re invited to keep watch and stay alert, attentive to signs of the light that is both coming and already here. At this flipping of the calendar, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite stories that gave us hope in 2025—stories of creative defiance, courageous solidarity, and radical testimony to a way of living that transcends this ol’ mess.

Read the full article

Sacred Resistance Needs You

Right-wing extremists have hijacked the public square and are actively destroying the federal government, nonprofits, the media, and social justice organizations.

This is our moment. We aren’t stepping down. We are fighting back—not with fear, but with faith. Sojourners works to make justice louder than hate and division. Act now to support this work—a $20,000 matching challenge means your donation doubles its impact when we need it most.

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Our Latest Stories

Want to Love Your Neighbor? Grieve With Them (by Elom Tettey-Tamaklo)

Who we choose to grieve indicates who we consider to be human. In times of great moral cacophony, I have always preferred to hear directly from Jesus when dealing with the weight of grief.

‘Train Dreams’ Walks with Job Through Grief and Grace (by Georgia Coley)

“We have these things that happen in our lives that completely upend our lives, and it’s hard to find a reason or rationality in them,” director Clint Bentley told Sojourners.