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Review

 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. (Deuteronomy 8:11)

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. (Deuteronomy 4:9)

          Christmas is over, or will be by the time you read this. It’s the time of year when we traditionally look backward and forward. If there was ever a year we are likely to want to forget, 2020 is it. Or is it? What really happened in your life this past year? For one thing, you survived. It may not have been easy, but you did it!

          As I look back, in January, I bought a trailer and moved into it. I moved back to Erie as the pandemic was gaining its hold on the American psyche. What took hold of my psyche were the ideas of being resourceful and helpful. I don’t really want to list all that has happened this year, but some of it has been amazing to me: publishing two books, learning about useful plants in my neighborhood, making jams, jellies, sauces, and salves, canning, and what seems like the setting free of a “superpower.” I’m not physically strong, but I schlepped concrete block and compost and I have been weeding here like a trooper. I may be useless in all those “sexy” powers, but I can do the jobs no one else wants to do like a trooper.

          As you look back at the year, may I challenge you to recognize the good things that aren’t your typical good things? Did you learn something new? Did you help someone? Did you keep your head while all around you lost theirs? As I think of 2020, I have to say that it was a great year. Yes, COVID-19 hovered in the background. Yes, political turmoil snarled from the bushes. It’s not that they weren’t a part of my life – they were excuses I used to not do some things I really should have done, but they were also the catalysts that led me to do some things, and they were the roadblock to keep me from doing others, but in terms of my involvement in my own life, they were more benefits than problems. As I look back, I don’t see the year as wasted, lost, or even bad.

          It was a good year. God did some amazing and surprising things that would never have crossed my mind even three years ago. If they did, I would have said, “Impossible.” But here I am, at the end of 2020, praising God for what may be one of the best years of my life.

          How was your 2020, really? Pull aside the curtains of COVID-19 and political unrest and look at your life. How is your relationship with God? How is your relationship with everyone else? What good things happened? What bad things happened? How did you respond? Did you learn anything? Did you grow, or grow stronger? Don’t ignore the negatives. List the bad things, the failures, the hardships, but focus more on the positives. It seems odd to me to be thankful for things I have done – but I am greatly thankful for what I’ve had the chance to do, for the help I’ve been, and for what I’ve learned through it all (as little as that sometimes seems.)

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