Happy New Year Or Don't Waste 2020

We are two days away from starting the New Year, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say, “Good riddance, 2020!”  Can I get a witness? 

This has been one of the hardest years that we have experienced.  Limited crowds.  Social distancing. No NCAA basketball tournament!  I mean, the humanity of it all! I get it.

There are things far more important than basketball that have been taken from us. Weddings have been postponed.  Funerals have been kept private. And church services have become virtual. 

Just consider this. Would you have ever thought about putting on a mask and walking into your bank? It’s comical to consider.  I actually pull a mask over my face every time I walk into the bank to get money!

Again, 2020 has been tough. So many things to which we had grown accustomed have been taken away.  And we desperately want things to get back to normal.  Several questions come to my mind

.First, what is normal?  And as we think of normal, do we really want to get back to that? And what if normal never returns?  The very thought of that last one sends shivers up my spine. I liked normal. Normal was comfortable. 

But then there is this question, which likely trumps all others. What is God trying to teach us from this? The fact is that there may be different answers to that question for each of us.  But I hope that we can see that we need to search for that answer. 

A good friend of mine has told me more than once that he doesn’t want to “waste his cancer.”  And in that same vein, I pray that we will not “waste 2020.”  God has been speaking to us all along. Have we been listening? There is a lesson to learn.  Don’t give up until you learn it. 

By the way, I think it is just fine to pray that 2021 will bring better things.But still I say it one more time. Don’t waste 2020.  Happy New Year!