Musings of 2020

GOT A GOOD MEME???

It feels like 2020 was the year where everyone indirectly or directly expressed how they were feeling and memes were the perfect avenue.  If I see ONE MORE toilet paper meme… well, let's just say I will not be held accountable for my actions! Jokes and memes are ways many of us have dealt with the stress, anxiety, uncertainty, and pain of this year.  It has been a coping mechanism that, for some, has made 2020 just a little bit more bearable. 

All jokes aside, 2020 has been a year I don't think ANYONE will forget.  We cannot minimize and toss aside the fact that some have lost jobs, pets, homes, and even family members.  For those of you that have suffered a loss no matter how big or small, my heart goes out to you. I cannot walk in your shoes and feel your pain, but I can choose to walk next to you with compassion and support. May God comfort you in this time and help you to see His hand in the midst of it all.

There are a lot of cliché phrases and sayings that float around conversations these days, particularly in that of believers.  "He brings beauty from ashes." "When God closes a door, He opens a window" etc.… These types of sayings are meant to encourage us.  But, do they really?  Or have they become something that is said to anesthetize us from the difficulty we are going through?

For there to be ashes, there had to have been a fire at some point.  Hmmm… think about that for a minute. Now, any of my lady friends out there who have ever been burned with a simple flat iron will tell you, it's not fun!  It hurts!  So, analyze the imagery of something "beautiful" coming out of ashes. What does that sentence evoke in you?  What images appear at the forefront of your mind?  What feelings and thoughts spring up in your heart?  Surviving a fire is a painful and long process.  Any burn victim can tell you the excruciatingly long time healing takes.  What was Isaiah talking about when he mentions beauty replacing the ashes?  Oh friends, take a moment to stop and read Isaiah 61, and then come back and talk to me about what a year 2020 has been.

Personally, 2020 has been a year of change and challenge, no doubt.  But, that hasn't necessarily been a bad thing.  Was it easy? No.  Was it necessary?  Definitely!  To reach the things that God has for me, things had to change.  I needed to change. I needed to get out of my comfort zone.  Granted, I must have really been settled into my comfort zone for god to feel it necessary to use a pandemic to get me out of it!  but hey, It goes to show you the lengths God will go to—in order to see his purposes fulfilled.  It reminds me of a time where God wanted me to go in a certain direction and I was hesitant.  To accomplish His purpose He used a flood, my home being torn down, and having to travel across the globe without knowing where I would call home when I got back, to make it happen.  Can you tell that God knows me well and isn't afraid to push me when necessary?  Just like with Jonah, God isn't afraid to toss you in the sea to see you get to where you have to go.

I, like so many of you, have had my share of tears and frustrations.  2020 did not come to play.  In fact, 2020 was like that one kid that brings the ball to the park and then doesn't let anyone else play with it.  January 2020 started off with many people's expectations soaring for a great productive year.  Yet, for the past 11 months, it would seem as though the year was quite the opposite.  There has been a lot of loss, pain, and stretching.  There has been a lot of grappling with the unknowns and the anxiety that comes with it.  But I'm going to challenge you for a moment.  I challenge that idea with this.  Although productivity seemed to be at a standstill for most of 2020, Could it be that 2020 was god's way of shifting things? Of making us see what is truly important?  Of forcing us to take a look at ourselves and, in some instances, see how far we have strayed from the path that he created for us?

We all love to read inspirational posts and sayings.  We buy posters, signs and make screensavers for our computers and smartphones.  Phrases like "growing pains" or "birthing something new" sound profound and encouraging.   We love to read them, but how willing are we to walk those words out? "Growing pains", well that one is self-explanatory.  Pain is part of the description.  "birthing something new",  just ask a fellow mama about the "joys of childbirth"-Nuff said.  We already talked about "beauty from ashes". Ouch!  Then we have the "when God closes a door, he opens a window."  Some of us take this phrase to mean that God will make a way where there is no way. (Isaiah 43:19)  there is this sense of pushing through against the odds, right? but maybe, just maybe, when God opens that window, it's for us to have a pretty view as we sit in the room with the closed door.  Perhaps, he has tried so many ways to reach us that he has to close us up in a room to get us to listen.