This isn’t what 2020 was supposed to look like.
When the year began, my wife and I were looking forward to connecting with the Glenn Memorial community-- going to church events, meeting people for lunch or coffee, and beginning to get involved. In the sports world, my alma mater was poised to make a deep run in the March Madness NCAA men’s basketball tournament. “Finally,” I hoped, “this will be our year!” Memorial Day weekend would mean kicking off the summer season with the live music, delicious food, and creative atmosphere of the Decatur Arts Festival. At least, that’s how I thought 2020 was going to go. Of course, none of these things actually happened.
Although 2020 has been unusual, every year people’s plans are disrupted in substantial ways. Sometimes it’s because a relationship didn’t work out. Other times, a person struggles with school or is laid off from his or her job. Tragically, people’s lives can be cut short by accidents, surprise illnesses, or other unexpected calamities.
We all have preconceived notions of how we think our lives are supposed to work. But life is messy, and circumstances seldom go exactly as we planned. How we respond to unfulfilled dreams is an important part of what makes us human. Sometimes we need to let go of rigid ideas about how life is supposed to go. It doesn’t mean that we necessarily have to abandon everything that we thought we knew. We can take some aspects of our past, integrate them into our life experience, and use them to inform our future paths.
Paul was a man with great ambition. In Philippians 3, he wrote of how he was: “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” (vv. 5-6). But Paul’s unexpected encounter with Jesus threw his lifelong plans into disarray. Rather than dwelling on his past goals and harboring bitterness and resentment about what might have been, Paul humbled himself and allowed God to use his vast knowledge of the law and scriptures in a new, transformed way. “Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,” the apostle wrote, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (vv. 13-14).
We are living through a period of history that is both extraordinary and deeply troubling. While the times in which we live are challenging, they provide us with an opportunity to rethink old assumptions about how life is supposed to work. Like Paul, we can learn from our past without being constrained by it. Let us pray and reflect on areas where we might need God’s help to see beyond old ways of thinking. We can ask God to give us a renewed perspective and look for past disappointments to be reborn in new ways. When we do, we can begin to grasp the future—full of hope and possibilities-- that God intends for us.
Scott Santibañez DMin
Regular Attendee, Glenn Memorial UMC
Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19 (NASB)