This last year has been one completely unexpected and it will be forever remembered as such. In just the last several months it seems as if everything has changed. From the way we all live, act, to even the way we look. Many lessons have been learned in the past year but the greatest is one the scripture has been trying to teach us for the last two thousand years. This lesson is found in an often-overlooked passage penned by James.
James 4:13–14 (ESV)
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
If last year taught us anything, it is we truly have no way of knowing what tomorrow will bring. As we were forced to learn, in what feels like an instant, everything can change. Affecting not only one day, or even a few days, but the entire foreseeable future.
Everyone came into last year with plans of some kind. Whether they were to simply go to the office every day as normal. Or grand plans of trips you would take later in the year. From the greatest, to least every preconceived notion we had for the year was torn down. Even normal was erased as staples of our society begin to close and be canceled.
2020, the year of vision, now stands as the year of hindsight. As this new year begins, all we can do is look back over everything that has happened and try to learn from it moving forward. As God’s people, this means looking at the year from the viewpoint of scripture. Where we see an old lesson that has never been more applicable in our lives and once again proves that God’s word stands the test of time.
We truly do not know what tomorrow will bring. Our lives on earth in the grand scheme are but a mist. Here for only a little while before quickly vanishing never to be seen again. As such we must learn to apply what James writes next in every aspect of our lives.
James 4:15 (ESV)
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
You see the great lesson to be learned from last year is not only that we do not know what lies on the horizon. But that as Christians we need to accept that fact and rely on the Lord. Allowing God’s will to be the driving force in our lives and not our own.
Then when times such as these come we won’t find ourselves upset because things didn’t go the way we had hoped. Instead, we will find comfort in knowing that is where God wants us to be. Trusting in the fact that He works all things for the good of those who believe. Even when we cannot see it and even when it seems like everything is bad. Still, God has a purpose and is working it for the good of His people. Just as we see in the life of Joseph.
Romans 8:28 (ESV)
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Genesis 50:20 (ESV)
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Learn the lesson that God has tried to teach us this last year. Enter this new year with the right mindset. Make plans and try to enjoy this life. But don’t go in believing things will go exactly as you planned and nothing can change that. Because things can and will change. We simply can’t know for sure what is going to happen.
So approach every time you make plans with a mindset that says if God wills, this is what we will do. That is how we should want to live as Christians anyway. Striving to be in God’s will and not in our own. As James also points out it is boosting and evil to do otherwise.
James 4:16 (ESV)
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
So much new information surfaced last year and it seems to change daily. Every one of us has been forced to learn and adapt. But the greatest lesson we can learn this year comes from the One who never changes. It comes from His inspired word that has remained the same for thousands of years. It’s time the church truly learns this tough but necessary lesson.
We do not know what tomorrow will bring. So instead of trying to stand on our own, we should turn to the one who does know. Making our plans with the Lord in mind. Accepting that things may not work out as we hoped but that God’s will we be done. Knowing that He is working to ensure the best for everyone.
That is the greatest lesson to be learned from 2020. Don’t let it pass you by and return to making plans on your own. As we prepare to enter the new year enter it with this truth on your mind. And just keep trusting the Lord to see you through.
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