Celebrating in detours, and delays in a Covid-19 year
We made it! At last, we are viewing 2020 in our rearview mirror. Widespread comments testify that folks are relieved for the detours and delays of 2020 to be over. Even as new strains of COVID-19 start showing up, anticipation for a better year in 2021 is strong. Extra loud cheers went up when the clock struck 12. Happy New Year! We ushered in the new year hungry for good news and ready for opportunity and progress. Our agenda lacks room for celebrating detours and delays. We discontentedly tolerated them in 2020. Now, we hope they will disappear in the dust in our rearview mirror.
So, how will you record the end of 2020 in your life journal, whether written down or etched in your memory?
We annually record losses and gains for financial reporting and recalculate our net worth. Some faced devastating economic losses in 2020, while others maintained or even prospered. If we reported relational gains and losses, a different story would be told. What metrics would we choose to quantify detours and delays in relationships, social interaction, community engagement (both secular and spiritual)? Birth, death, marriage, and divorce records only hint at the full loss and gain incurred. Covid-19 got personal when a friend or a family member contracted the virus or someone we knew died. You know the stories all too well.
Does it sound ludicrous that I suggested celebrating detours and delays?
I admit that I am using the word “celebrating” loosely. In a broad sense, celebrating something involves recognizing and understanding something of overall worth in an event or person. Further, it requires willingness, a disposition of gratitude, and forward-looking hope. Forced family fun is not the scenario here.
How do we find personal worth in a year like 2020 with Covid-19?
For me, expanding my capacity to celebrate the difficulties of life began with embracing my limitations. Sometimes my physical health and energy were limited without a solution. Other times my life resembled a series of detours, delays, and dead ends. In the process, I began to understand the lessons recorded in the book of Job and the James 5.11 recap of God’s purpose in Job’s life trials.
Here is how my rearview mirror reads now:
The end of the Lord is good!
My God limits me – to prosper me in ways I cannot yet comprehend.
I ended 2020 more confident in God’s good purpose for my life, and yours, than ever before!
My challenge for you
Join me in reframing our view of 2020, despite its tragic losses and limitations, by considering it as purposeful in God’s mentoring of our soul and journey to heaven.
God’s intentions toward you and me are not just good; they are eternally wonderful. He announced it in Bethlehem and proved it with an empty tomb after the gruesome suffering of Calvary’s crucifixion.
Please, do not pass this off as trite or simplistic. In my life journal, it equals proven truth.
These twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany are an annual reflective time for me. I find time to reflect in-depth on my Advent themes (the Gifts of Christmas) because post-Christmas days are less busy. My husband and I retreat to his homeplace in North Carolina to reset our minds and hearts and seek wisdom for the year ahead. We will look back and look forward with gratitude and joy for where God has brought us so far. We will consider any shifts we need to make and be open to new opportunities that may come into view as the new year begins.
However, there is one goal that I carry forward every year. I never question whether it is still worth pursuing. Because living out the “Gifts of Christmas: Honor, Compassion, Peace, Hope, and Joy” has a permanent seat at the core of my personal goals in life. When I employ those “gifts” in my perspectives, relationships, and conversations, every day is worth celebrating!
Worth Noticing:
Regardless of which Bible translation you use, I come to the same conclusion:
My God intends good for me. Our circumstances are filtered through God’s compassion and mercy for His purposeful outcome. My role is to endure life’s circumstances, steadfast and hopeful, with eyes wide open to spot his goodness at work.
James 5:11, KJV: “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”
James 5:11, ESV: “Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”
James 5:11, NASB: “We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.”
