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December 24, 2020

Merry Christmas 2020

By Barry Rudesill

Okay, show of hands: Did 2020 meet your expectations? Did your perception for how the world SHOULD work match reality? Or, was 2020...junk?

Believe it or not, just like with people, we have expectations for the year, for society, for the people around us...for everything, actually! We build mental pictures for how things SHOULD work, and then we base our lives on them. I don’t know about you, but a lot of my “SHOULD’s” got put to the test this year!

I would argue that most of you never saw this one coming, right? The virus breaks out, people all over get sick, the shelves at stores empty of toilet paper, we all wear masks in public, and we hide out in our homes. The elderly get hit both coming and going. If we visit our loved ones, they can get sick and die. If we don’t visit them, they spend their time alone.

There is sickness, fear, confusion, and, in some cases, death. At the same time, there is isolation and depression. In some ways, it’s like a “perfect storm” for creating stress...if…

So, what do I mean by “If”? I mean that 2020 CAN be stressful for us, if we let it be!

As we come to the end of 2020, there are two options that we can focus on:

First, we can believe that the world is unsafe. We can choose to live our lives in fear, we can struggle with trying to control something that is fundamentally uncontrollable, and we can let it affect our health, our relationships, and our hope.

Or…

Second, we can believe that “life happens”. We take the chaos around us in stride, we realize that we cannot control situations or people, we do what we can to keep ourselves – and those around us – safe, we focus on the positives (and there always are some), and we choose to keep moving forward.

It’s our choice...

Now please understand that I am NOT downplaying the seriousness of COVID-19. Instead, I’m saying:

  • Other generations have had to deal with “plagues”; so why should we be privileged? Where did that expectation come from, is it realistic, and is it mine to enforce? (Remember: The difference between our expectation and reality is the amount of pain we experience!)
  • Other generations have faced hardships before; why is our generation different?
  • Other generations survived – and even thrived – after the tough times; do you think ours can’t or won’t? If we choose not to rise up to meet the challenge, it will be our choice! But, watching the news – well, parts of it anyway – I find a lot of places to find hope!

This Christmas season, what do you believe about the world around you? Where is your focus? Are you living your life in fear, or are you choosing to look for the good around you?

Or, better yet, are you choosing to be the “good” that this world needs?

Have a very Merry Christmas and we’ll talk more soon!

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