Clear Skies Ahead

The note inside the Christmas card read: “We’re glad to have 2020 in the rearview mirror.” We smile at the sentiment chock-full of wit and sarcasm, more humorous for its understatement. The less funny side is that it nearly begs us (okay, begs me) to launch into a personalized version of the horror story that was 2020, waxing eloquent with amplified drama and hyperbole. That performance, while perhaps entertaining, is bereft of any real value and could result in a protracted rant, a massive pity party as well as a huge dose of discouragement to any hearers. But an oft-cited truism surfaces here: “We must give up all hope of having a better past.” And, I might add, a better last year. This is the day (and the year) the Lord has made. Will we choose to rejoice and be glad in it? In Him? Will we choose his face, his person, his faithfulness rather than our own?  Will we investigate further this incredible truth of being ‘in Him’? You know what? I find it scary to realize how easy it is to charge into the new year head down, full steam ahead, business-as-usual, glad the old one is in the rearview mirror, with little or no thought of the One who is hoping we will grow in our reliance on his proven lead, who asks us to rid ourselves of our overweening self-confidence, who waits longsufferingly in the wings like a besotted lover until we do. Fortunately, we are still early in our foray into 2021 with time to benefit from a re-think. One help to that end is the daily practice of mining the day’s gold and accepting the day’s weeds (see below for a refresher). I have a sense that God would like to disrupt this year to the same magnitude we were disrupted in the last – only this time a glory-filled inbreaking of the Kingdom with signs and wonders and miracles, doing again what he did in the days of the early church as related to us in the New Testament. Fasten those seatbelts. Eyes on the road. God will be doing the driving. 😊 PD