Why 2020 Might Be the Most Important Year of Our Lives

 

Pacific City is one of my favorite stretches of beach on the Oregon Coast. I love climbing the huge sand dune there and overlooking the frothy, wind-foamed waves. But at the height of this peaceful viewpoint there is a sign as out of place as a ringtone in the midst of a lullaby.

“Danger!” it proclaims. “Beware of unstable areas and shifting sand.” It seems dramatic, and a definite fun-killer, but when you learn the back story—how many people have fallen off the unstable bluff and drowned—you realize the kindness of such a sign. It’s not a disruption, but a revelation.

And that what I’ve come to realize 2020 has been for me.

 

I never would have said my faith was in my freedom. 

I never would have claimed my hope was in the predictability of my life and job. 

I never would have admitted that I found my joy in what I could accomplish.

 

But my emotions this year have often revealed it for me. I have certainly felt the unstable areas and shifting sands in the world around me and the ground beneath me and my heart within me. 2020 has put on display all that is unstable in this world, and all that is unstable in my heart and affections.  I certainly have not suffered like I know so many have, yet even missing my minor comforts, conveniences, and companionship has made me feel the gloom and isolation of the year. And I have had to ask myself: why is my heart so heavy when others are suffering so much more? God, where are you in 2020?

Standing atop that dune in Pacific City, if you let your eyes trail beyond the garish “Danger!” sign, you will see Haystack Rock. It is as solid and steady and unmoving as the bluff is shaky and temporary and sinking. Therein lies the symbolism of why 2020 may just be the most important year of my life. Because through all the hardship it has been like that sign, not just warning me of the dangerous ground my fleshly heart clings to, but also pointing me beyond. Pointing me to the Rock that is higher than I, who has been here this whole time.

 

My faith is not shaken, for it rests in the unshakeable God.

My joy can never dry up, for the Lord is its bottomless wellspring.

My hope cannot die, for it is in Christ.

 

“God is not dead, nor does He sleep”—even in 2020! So what greater mercy could there be than to remind me to place my hope on the solid Rock of Christ instead of the sinking sand of earthly comfort? What richer kindness could exist than for the Lord to reveal where my heart was beginning to cling to unstable ground? It is not cruel to take away the things that distract me from God, for in Him is my ultimate satisfaction.

I am reminded of why the persecuted Christians of North Korea said they were praying for us: “Because Christians in the West still have some wealth and freedom and power. Most have not yet experienced what it is like when all you have in life is God.*”

2020 has begun to answer their prayer. I am still learning to view this year and the next not so much as disruption but more as a kind revelation that all I have in life really is God. A sign warning me the unstable bluff is sinking, but also reminding me the Solid Rock still stands against the storm. What could be more important than that?

 

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*These Are the Generations, Mr. and Mrs. Bae, as told to Eric Foley