Well it’s over and done.
Finisimo
We finished that train-wreck of 2020 and all the carnage that left us feeling vulnerable like never before—sliced as thin as tissue paper.
We wade out of January 2021, the date we all yearned for—and yet here I sit on a gloomy morning outside an Urgent Care clinic. With the engine on, heater blasting, and then engine off to save gas, and as I get chilly— I repeat the on and the off—for an hour and a half… waiting for my “rapid” COVID test. I guess with the rampant spread it was almost inevitable.
With 2021 looking barely different than the awfulness of last year, mental and for some, physical battles continue. For nearly a year we brawled with the giants of loneliness, isolation, and fear.
No one stands unscathed. As a collective global unit, we mourn the life we knew, the life we took for granted, and those we have loved and lost. In this all-out war, the scent of grief often stings our nostrils as we march onward with grim determination to find hope.
So what to do for a better year? How to transform this year into one of celebration and not just survival?
Whether you are a New Year’s resolution kind of person or not, here’s one life-changing act that will make your 2021 better—and the rest of your life more satisfying and beautiful.
Be Thankful.
That’s it. Easy-Peasy right? Not always…
But why and how in unhappy times like these? Why does our human nature propel us away from thankfulness and from embracing our blessings until we realize what have we lost?
We often forget in the midst of trials we have the key to “happiness”—a constant companion in our God who never wavers though our world shakes and groans.
And I grasp with all my strength to this victory flag of bold truth—
God is for me.
God is for you.
God inhabits our world as the constant rock of our existence. To think of the billions of people who trekked this earth—yet he cares enough to write down each of our sorrows in his book. And he lovingly catches each tear and stores them in His bottle for all our days. Does that kind of compassion blow your mind away?
I cannot fathom the depths of his love for us, a fickle and ever failing creation. But it chisels away the stone threatening my heart and reminds me we are beloved. God fights for us. And we will survive our climb through 2021 and beyond with the God of grace as our unfailing leader.
You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have collected all my tears in your bottle.
You have recorded each one in your book.
My enemies will retreat when I call to you for help.
This I know: God is on my side!
PS 56:8-9
As you begin your day, I encourage you to start a weekly thankfulness list. My first entry? “I see a glimmer of hope on the horizon, as vaccines roll out by the truckload and I’m oh so thankful to know your blessing of spring is around the corner.”
Let’s bask in the knowledge that we serve a good God who has 2021 under control. No more crying, there remains so much to be thankful for.
Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and
his faithfulness continues to each generation.
Psalm 100