2020: A Year to be Thankful?

Let’s see a show of hands. How many of you have enjoyed 2020?

For a few of us, 2020 has been a year of weddings, births, new homes, graduations, and so forth, but for most of us, 2020 has been a downright challenge. This has been a year of impeachment proceedings, a pandemic, an economic recession, shutdowns, sequestering at home, racial tension, street riots, and the whole nasty election process.

The year 2020 has not gone the way we wanted it to. If I had my way, I’d make 2020 go stand in the corner for time out until it could learn to work and play well with others.

I want to embrace another attitude toward 2020, one that is more biblical, and therefore, correct.

The year 2020 is merely a bump in the road.

From God’s eternal perspective, these 12 months are infinitesimally short. In fact, the whole of our lives is short compared to the eternity we will spend with Christ. Of course, it doesn’t feel short because we are locked into time. Joyous times may seem to fly by, but difficult times seem to drag on. A statement often attributed to Einstein captures this idea:

“When you sit with a pretty girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours.”

Hard experiences may seem to drag on, but that’s not the end of the story. For the follower of Christ, we have a sure hope of greater things—and an eternity to enjoy them! Jesus offered a better illustration:

“When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world. So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy from you” (John 16:21-22).

This has been a hard year, but we will move on from it. Who knows, 2021 may be worse (!), but either way, the difficulties and challenges we face need not be permanent. In Christ, we will move on to better days and better things—and for that we can be thankful.

We are entering a season of thanksgiving. In 2020, what can we be thankful for? For one, we can be thankful that 2020 is only a bump in the road. Let’s keep a God-centered eternal perspective. God has greater things in store for us. Let’s endure and keep our focus on Him.

Use the following questions to see things from God’s perspective.

• What has God taught you through 2020?
• How has God grown you through this year?
• How has God used 2020 to make you more like Jesus?

I am confident that, as you consider these questions, you will be drawn to worship Him and find renewed reasons to be thankful.

“For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18).

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This post supports the study “Committed to His Worship” in Bible Studies for Life and YOU.

Podcast

Join Lynn Pryor and Chris Johnson as they discus this topic:

https://ministrysites.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/bsfl_adults/BSFL_ADULTS_Fal20_U2S6.mp3