February 2020

We’re nearly two months into the new year. The new decade. It’s 2020! And I wonder if we’ve seen any noticeable changes in our lives.

Has anyone started healthy eating habits, experienced weight loss, developed any new disciplines, broken any bad habits, started a new job, picked up a new hobby?

We hear slogans like “New Year, New Me! This is gonna be the best year ever!”

And I wonder if we have high hopes and expectations for this year because of the ho-hum experience of last year? Or even the last few years?

The trajectory of our lives will follow a similar pattern of where we’ve already been without making some adjustments along the way.

I remember Andy Stanley’s quote, “decisions, not intentions, will determine our destination.” We can have the best intentions but until some of the already formed attitudes woven deep inside of us are broken we will continue the same cycle of living we’ve always experienced.

Situations and circumstances may bump us off the path but we’ll gradually crawl back into those familiar spaces if left alone.

Situations like cancer, divorce, losing a job, a wayward child, or financial struggles; no one is asking for that but what if any one of those experiences is laying in the path of this year’s journey? That’d be terrible, I’m not gonna lie!

Here’s what I wonder…Would bumping into any of these difficult situations actually ruin us in the long run? I’m not asking for it to happen to anybody. But, inevitably, it will happen to somebody.

What if 2020 isn’t filled with a fat pocketbook, a job promotion, a long awaited pregnancy, a dream vacation, or the wedding you’ve always wanted?

Instead what if the highway paved with great intentions is met with potholes and sudden surges of falling rock that is creating a landslide in everybody else’s eyes about your life?

Look, I know it’s just February! And there seems to be great promise for many of us for the next 10 months. But let me remind you, the Astros cheated, it’s an election year, and people are in a tizzy about the Coronavirus. It’s sketchy to say the least!

I’ve been reading Deuteronomy 8 in my Bible lately. God chose Israel to be His people. He gave them some commands, vowed that they should stay close to Him, and not forsake the commands He had given them. The beginning of the chapter is an exhortation to embrace God’s faithfulness. The end of the chapter is a warning if they should choose to neglect or abandon the faithful words of their God.

But you know, just like all humans, their intentions were met with difficult situations where they would be tempted to compromise those holy declarations made by God.

He told them to “take care…” Not take care like ‘figure this out on your own.’ Take care, keep close, don’t abandon My words lest if you forsake them you forget about Me.

The implication was that as they experienced God’s blessings they may forget the Giver and focus solely on the gift. Then come to believe that they actually provided the riches for themselves. It would be the prologue of the devastating demise of a ‘puffed up heart.’

The writer continues to describe, as a reminder, their wilderness experience; the escape from slavery, the serpents and scorpions, the thirsty ground, the manna from heaven. And he said they experienced this ‘that He might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.’

My life, like yours I’m sure, has been met by some trying and devastating circumstances. I’ve experienced loss and setbacks just like the next person. And I wouldn’t wish those situations on anybody. I’ve also experienced the richness of the blessings of God.

If I’m honest, the bright lights of God’s blessings have conjured up in me a greater temptation to deny the faithfulness of God than any dark place in my life ever could. The temptation is to believe that the good days undermine or distract me away from the good God who gave them to me. That somehow my ‘puffed up heart’ has led me to believe that I’ve done these things for myself.

Those dark days, those not so good days, are the days where I’ve seen God most clearly at work in me. So while I’d much rather God do a work in me on the sunny days of His good grace, I’m confident He can use the rainy days alike to accomplish something that will be good in the end.

What if 2020, with all the potential hurt, habits, and hang-ups, would actually do you good in the end? Here’s what I know to be true about God. God is loving. God is kind. God is good. He is long-suffering and willing to use every circumstance in our lives to make one more stroke of the brush on the canvas of our heart to see the most beautiful picture of grace our eyes have ever seen. To do us good in the end!