Something For Sunday
By: Rob Jones
I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say the year 2020 was a challenge for us all. Personally, I struggled in every area of my life. None of us could have predicted how integral freely moving through society was to our mental and physical health, our happiness and contentment, our relationships with friends and family, and even our connection with our significant other. Simply being forced to stay home has transformed our places of rest and relaxation into prisons of unrest and frustration. Evidence of the stress and strain the pandemic is having on humanity can be seen in the rise in break ups and divorce around the world. Not to mention the social unrest, unexpected deaths and political chaos that also characterized 2020.
Given all the trials of the previous year, everyone seemed ready to crossover into this new year with the hope and expectation that things will be much better. Although optimism is still high for 2021 the first few days of this year have been critically stained by continued high levels of contraction of coronavirus and an assault on the U.S capitol to interfere with the confirmation of Joe Biden as President.
With a bevy challenges both external and internal to our personal lives it can be hard to shake the feeling of despair. Given our situation how are we to approach 2021? The right approach can be hard to pin down, but I have some thoughts on what not to do. Do not quit. Hard times can seem overwhelming. However, it is important to remember the success of the future belongs to those who can persevere. If you can avoid it, do not make any life changing decisions. This is a strange time, but things will not always be like this. This temporary trial is likely not a good reason or season to make a permanent decision.
But some readers may ask but what should we actively do during this time. The answer to this question is the same no matter what life throws at us. As always, we should seek to live a better life. As C.S. Lewis once pointed out that in desperate even life-threatening times let us be found “doing sensible and human things. Praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting with friends…” This is how we go through 2021 and the rest of our lives, doing sensible and human things.
I’ll leave the reader with the words from the wizard Gandalf in the movie ‘The Lord of the Rings’. When Frodo confessed to Gandalf that he wished the Ring had never come to him. He wished none of this had happened. Gandalf replied, “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
