2020
It broke all expectations and predictions. If you had a tight five-year plan set in 2015, it was sure to disappoint. With changes, distance and difficulty, much illness, fear and far too many Covid-related deaths in this corner of Kent. 2020 was a really challenging and unexpectedly dark gift. Unrelenting uncertainty and unstoppable intensity with many good things sadly snuffed out.
So amidst the ache, uncertainty and loss, there have been blessings received, important lessons learned, and opportunities for growth, trust, and reflection. So at the year-end, here’s what I’m thankful for...
The circumstances of our lives are infinitely less important than the attitude with which we live them. A good dose of kindly resilience, godly perseverance and digging deep has been needed in 2020. Guard your heart for it’s the wellspring of life. God is always enduringly near!
Most things are provisional: best marked in pencil. Hopefully, control has been weaned out of our systems. May your life be leaner, your joy unstealable, your spirit hungrier and your voice keenly saying: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening!?”
Simple positivity doesn’t cut it: it wears thin. Better tomorrows are not promised. The graph doesn't always lead upward and to the right. Suffering is real. Grief is needful and lament is healthy. Resources are needed, wells need to be deepened & godly character nurtured.
Speedy download-life isn’t how depth works. Life isn’t an Instagram filter look: sometimes its messy. Habits, choices and disciplines never feel more important. Know what five habits shape your life in God. Intentional is needed like never before. There are fewer fringe participants these days. They’ll all be gone by the end of 2021.
There’s always more given to us than has ever been taken away. The worst times & sweetest joys can co-exist! Hard-pressed but not in despair. Struggles produce perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character resources hope! See Romans 5 for more!
I witnessed a variety of individuals, groups and churches engage with uncertainty, care and service in all sorts of beautiful, creative and ways. All forms of relational life in community, marriage, church and family life have been under pressure. It remains so vital to cherish what we can do rather than what we can’t do. Serving & sharing differently has seen some truly soar and others nose-dive hard.
The perfect and the polished aren’t really that interesting or convincing! Personal connection and truthful authenticity continue to win out. Our limited offerings from The Vicarage, the study or scattered as a church family in honest everyday faith stories continue to be a cherished currency.
There’s nothing like a shoe-string budget to teach humility, agility and the necessity of engaging differently online in our scattered new-normal. Turning-up counts for plenty. Faithfulness and character grow in the daily grind, not in mountaintop glories! Take-one is always the best take…
Inconvenience is a gift. Whoever said the easy thing is the best thing? Review your own habits and life patterns. Don’t merely consume. Get to the silent place, the still place. Where are your chair and place? The secret place with God is still where all the gold is to be found. The patient ferment of the early church was their secret sauce!
Moaners are ever near! Don’t complain about the darkness so much as attend to the quality and quantity of the light. We always get to choose our response. Add value, life and light in whatever you do.
Amidst all the noise, listen for the still small voice. In our information overload culture, know your bias, question your norms and discern what is true against the faithfulness of God’s Word and His Spirit’s activity. Be committed to blistering truth. Embrace scripture and pursue a life in partnership with the Holy Spirit. Be hungry for its challenge, comfort and gift to you. Scripture has never meant more to me. It’s shockingly-awkward that it took a pandemic-season to help me become more immersed in the good book. Ephesians, John & Romans have become dear friends to me. Romans 12:12 has ambushed me, and these verses from 2 Corinthians 4 are so full of kingdom life & realism as we lean into 2021.
Just some of my reflections, how about you? What are you thankful for?
ps some other random favourites from across the year… Favourite movie moments were: Parasite, Queen & Slim, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Jojo Rabbit: not Tenet or Soul! Box-sets that I enjoyed others here at the Vicarage were, The Crown, Queen’s Gambit, Money Heist, The Haunting of Hill House, Unorthodox, Servant, Chef's Table, Unbelievable and Ozark.
Favourite reads were Dominion by Tom Holland, Patient Ferment by Alan Kreider, Breaking Bread with the Dead by Alan Jacobs, Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund, A Sacred Fire by Ronald Rolheiser, English Pastoral by James Rebanks, Everywhere you look by Tim Soerens, Intimations by Zadie Smith, Reading while Black by Esau McCaulley, Exiles on Mission by Paul Williams and Reality, Grief & Hope by Walter Brueggemann.
…and favourite coffee beans across 2020 were roasted by Hasbean, Colonna, Ozone, Curve and Allpress!