The One Thing Constant in 2020

Maybe the one thing we can all agree on about 2020 is that it has been a year of change. Essentially nothing has gone as expected. And because of the constant cancellations and changes in plans, everything in my calendar going forward is simply penciled in. For I am learning something I have never heeded before, and that is the reality of James 4:15, “if the Lord wants us to, we will live and carry out our plans.” Otherwise, we won’t.

Apparently, football was not in the cards for our high school this Friday night. Covid hit the team, just as it did our family right before our planned summer vacation back in July. I would be lying not to say I am (and was) disappointed. By now, we know disappointment well after all the cancelled graduations, showers, weddings, trips, and now abnormal school year before us. Will our college kids even get to stay on their campuses, and if so, how long until everything is virtual? All these unresolved questions, disappointments, and also not-so-easy decisions to make.

For those of us not immune compromised, for the first time we are forced to really consider our ‘yeses’ for health purposes and others’ well-being. To this end, a few weeks ago I decided I must change my RSVP to the wedding of one of my daughter’s high school friends. I wanted to be there and had planned to be there, but with every social encounter we must now weigh the consequences of possible exposure against what two weeks of quarantine would keep us and our family members from. For me to attend the wedding meant I could put at risk my one son who at the time was only a week away from moving to college, my other son’s ability to practice football, and my husband’s recent knee surgery.

I hate that we have to think this way. This ever-changing new normal so quickly can spiral us downward into despair, “Lord, do something! Let our kids have the experiences they should. Let us carry on without masks and limitations. Make things better. Enough already!”

I pray God will answer these prayers in the way we hope. I really want high school football! But I know there is something bigger than our earthly happiness and full calendars that he wants us to cling to. Therefore, I see all of what’s gone on this year as reorienting us to place our hope not in what is seen, but what is guaranteed by his eternal promises.

I’ve thought alot over the past few months about God’s faithful promises and steadfast love to us, evidenced throughout the Bible and all of history, but culminated at the cross. A couple years ago, I wrote about God’s goodness to the Israelites in my devotional book in Exodus and just keeps becoming more relevant to me. I love how one of our pastor friends puts God’s unfathomable mercy and redeeming love in perspective, “If God does not do another thing for me, he has done enough.”

But with a here now mindset, we actually question whether the sacrifice of his son for our eternal purposes was enough. And yet there is no greater gift that we could ever hope for. So in the midst of the unknown, the constant changes, the disappointments, and frustrations of corona, may we cast our eyes on the promises of God that were secured for us in the work and worth of Christ. He alone is our guarantee of no more tears and all things new.

As it is, I am reading a book, A Bright Tomorrow, that spends a chapter outlining the effect God’s promises should have on the lives of a believer. The purposes of his promises are many; to serve as our comfort and to know his presence with us are two of them. What I found all summer and still now, that meditating on his promises is a great way to combat all the feelings. So I would encourage you too, to search out his promises in scripture. Write them out. Memorize the verses. Hide them in your hearts. For what we dwell on influences how we think and feel. For in his promises we find “not what we must do, and not what God will attempt to do, but what God has bound himself to do for us (Jared Mellinger).” 

He is faithful.

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10).”