What The Year 2020 Taught Me

• Share on Facebook
• Tweet it
• Pin it
• Email

I straddled my bike between the yellow lines of the two-lane backroads, riding over a mix of dirt and concrete as I journeyed to the end of the path.  Country music played from the portable speaker crammed into the bike’s basket, an alert to let the neighbors know I would soon be riding past.

The streets were still.  There was no sign of movement other than the occasional car driving by, crunching the acorns piling together in the street.  The lingering sound of birds chirping and squirrels scurrying up the tree trunks seemed amplified in the small neighborhood’s quiet.

My shoulders soaked in the heat from the sun, turning a slight shade of pink before adding a few more freckles to my growing collection.  The spring days painted a perfect golden-hour bike ride before sunset.  It was an activity to fill the time during Florida’s mandatory lockdown.

The wind came slowly at first, then erupted into an intense force with the ability to damage anything in its path.  It always seems to come in subtle yet overwhelming waves of power.  It shakes the otherwise sturdy limbs high in the trees, then moves to sway the Spanish moss dangling in the air. The grand finale is the leaves rustling as they dance in the wind before landing on the ground, the dried edges scratching against the cement.

Bike riding was a sort of routine my sister and I established to fill our surprisingly and devastatingly empty schedules- a rhythmic melody during a year that seemed to sing conflicting harmonies.  I’m not sure many can say they enjoyed the song.

It was our way to soak in a few minutes of peace before facing the uncertainty the rest of the world was enduring, a stillness or stability we could find.  Then the wind would come again. And everything around us changed, just like that spring in quarantine.

The wind’s power was infiltrated in every aspect of nature, evidently showing in the scattered leaves drifting through the air- until they fall back down to meet the ground- until they find a foundation.

2020 seemed to act in this way for many people, for the world.  When things around us change and there’s no constant to grasp, it’s almost as though a gust of wind has torn through our expectations, hitting us with a harsh reality.  Circumstances can seem shaky and unstable, like a leaf that stays floating, searching for a solid foundation to rest on.

You might feel like you can relate on some level.  Your head hits the pillow a little earlier each night, your steps a little slower and the time spent rolling out of bed takes a little longer.  The events from this past year may be challenging to comprehend.  Your legs ache, and your soul is weary, exhaustion’s effects taking their toll.  It seems that when things finally seem to settle down, the wind comes and disrupts everything, taking what is familiar and moving in ways we often do not care for… or like. 

The familiarity we once clung so tightly to gets tossed, scratching against the once-smooth edge of the concrete.  What we thought to be a stable foundation is now split in different directions.

2020 was predicted to a year different from any other, though I am not sure anyone expected it to be this different. 

We don’t want the wind.  We don’t want the movement from good to bad or bad to worse.  We don’t want the change that comes with that wind.

We want stability.  We want rest.

There were many lows, but there were also many highs that came from the year 2020.  2020 brought us the truth! 

• It reminded us that God is sovereign in all, and He is still able to take something so destructive and use it for GOOD even when that good may be hard for us to see now. 
• It reminded us even when everything is uncontrollable, unpredictable and unimaginable, NOTHING happens without passing through the Creator first. He is in control.  He doesn’t need to predict because He already knows.  He is still on the throne working for GOOD!!!!  He is equipping us.  He is using the hard parts of your 2020 to write a story that speaks of His redemption and grace.

He uses us if and when we allow ourselves to be used by Him even if it makes us uncomfortable, even if it requires a little extra wind to drive that change.

Just like the leaves drifting, moving and changing, we are exactly where we need to be.  We need a foundation to rest on, someone to rest in.

After all, leaves have to endure a harsh winter before they can regrow to bloom in the spring.  Your spring is coming.  Be still.

We will be uncomfortable before good can take place- and that’s okay.  If we didn’t have the wind acting as a force to move us, push us and change us, we would never grow.  If we never grow, we never become stronger.  If we never become stronger, we never reach the place or meet the people we are meant to reach!

Trust His timing.  Trust His process even when it feels like the year 2020.  Let the wind (Christ) take you where it takes you.  Everything may seem to be falling apart, but maybe God is moving everything into place, with some extra force.

I think I’m going to be learning a lot of that in 2021.  You are right where you need to be.  Enjoy it.

• Share on Facebook
• Tweet it
• Pin it
• Email