12-31-20 Goodbye to 2020 and Challenge for 2021

Daily Jot: Goodbye 2020 and challenge for 2021 – Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com Looking back on 2020, it was a year of great promise turned ugly. From COVID to lockdowns to racial issues to radical violence to a disputed election, America and Americans were under extraordinary pressure. We didn’t get a break. For the first time in history, healthy people were quarantined. The economy was locked down. The wheels of commerce were braked until they smoked. Medical science sent conflicting signals. The news media repeatedly lied. Politicians fought without resolve. And the end of the year is one that most people want to close out and forget, but that will not happen because there are so many unresolved issues ushering in 2021. We need to get a handle on this. We need leadership. This country cannot continue to lead the world under the current environment. America will be a country, but its position in the world will be challenged, especially by China. The rest of the world looks to the United States as a leader for economy, liberty, individual rights, and innovation. Currently, all those areas are under threat because of emotionalism, cronyism, ideological bigotry and political intolerance. Judgment and common sense are clouded by conflicting concepts. Everywhere we turn, we are presented with a challenge to any traditional norm. Science is what the big companies with the big money pay for it to be. Mask, no mask. Vaccines that have no track record and are only considered 50% effective with tremendous side effects. And if you don’t wear a mask and take the vaccine, you are a social pariah. 2020 was a year where totalitarianism took a giant leap forward. COVID was the catalyst. Fear was the driver. It seemed to cause Americans to forget themselves. Who are we? What are we? From a Christian standpoint, we had better figure out who we are otherwise the time-tested freedom to worship the Lord freely in this country will be threatened. We had better figure out how to stand as Christians or there will be fewer and fewer opportunities to share the gospel and to do the work of faith around the world. We had better determine that Christianity is not feel-good, self-indulgence based on some erroneous concept of scripture, but rather a way of life that is lived as an example to others by the instruction of Christ. We need to realize that this country and the world around us is a reflection of us. We can be the difference. Where is the perfect liberty in which Christ has set us free, if not in his salvation and the world changing power of that salvation? Can we not look at our lives with introspect and determine what it is we need to do to make this world a better place, then do it? Can we not begin with as Christ said in John 15:12, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you”? Can we not take it upon ourselves to “put away the childish things” and, as in Acts 17:6 be those who “have turned the world upside down”? There are so many in Christianity who say, “don’t be involved in politics,” “don’t be involved in business,” “don’t do this, don’t do that.” What about “doing” where the Lord has placed you, and making a positive difference where you can? These are the challenges for the year ahead.