2020 WORD FOR THE YEAR | UPDATE.

It's been extra quiet around here lately. Honestly, I spend so much more of my day behind a computer (since I'm livestreaming and recording teaching content) that by evening time, the last thing I want to do is sit and write.

But here's what I have been doing a lot lately: thinking about 2020. 

And I've struggled to figure out the best way to describe it. I'm sure many of you have seen other people's posts about how unexpected this year has been and how it's been a year unlike any other. Lately, I've been convicted by the posts about letting 2020 be a year to change you--and that we can either let this pandemic weaken or strengthen our character and relationship with Him.

But it's been a daily challenge to ride this out--I mean, I miss our old rhythms and routines. People mention that we'll never likely go back to what we considered "normal" because this is our normal right now--and that took me a long time to fully accept.

As these thoughts come into my mind, some lingering longer than others, I can't help but think about my word for 2020: OPEN. 

And that's when it hits me: God spoke this word into my heart in January with good reason. When these words first come to be, I'm often excited and anticipate what it means in every aspect of my life. Let's just say that I never expected 2020 to turn out like this.

But isn't that exactly what I asked for when I prayed OPENNESS into my heart and life? I specifically asked that I would have open hands to God's plans, that I would be open to whatever it is He threw my way, and that I would let go of my own preconceived thoughts and plans and let Him be sovereign in my life.

2020 has been a year of loss--losing loved ones, shifting and losing aspects of certain friendships, and just losing the plans and the hopes that I had for this year, especially with work.

So when I was thinking about my word for the year and what it's meant to me thus far, I couldn't help but I couldn't help but laugh because it's just the word that I needed. Things haven't panned out like I had hoped, but sometimes life is like that--not what we wanted, but what God's given us and often times what we need...and what's ultimately best for us as well.

I'm not saying that this pandemic is good for us or that it's something that God is using to punish us, but I am saying that there's always something to learn from life and sometimes we've just got to OPEN our eyes and minds--and hearts!--to find it.