I recently watched a video of a young woman reading her goals she wrote down in December 2019 for the year 2020. As she read the list, she couldn’t help but laugh at the way the events of 2020 ransacked those goals. She continued to laugh as she reflected upon how the opposite of those goals happened. Her list was made up of: make more money (she’s been unemployed since March); travel more; lose weight; be more social; cry less; and spend more time with her grandmother. Her grandmother died this past year. There is obviously nothing funny about that. But then again, her laugh wasn’t really a light hearted one, it was more of a “I have to laugh or I will cry” type of laugh, and she did make a goal to cry less. At the end of her video, I was left longing to just reach through and give her a big hug and hold her till the silent tears found voice and till that voice found peace. I wonder what her goals will look like for the year 2021.

This past year has served as a reminder that life is unpredictable. Sometimes, when we find ourselves in chronically unpredictable circumstances, we just throw our hands up in the air and say, “What’s the point anyways?” I re-shared a post on Facebook the other day that said, “I need to get back in shape but I’m kind of waiting to see if the world is going to end before I put any real effort in.” Now that produced a light hearted laugh. In the meantime, I just get more and more unhealthy as the world continues to spin on.

The danger of unpredictable circumstances is that they can produce a mentality of apathy within us.

If there is one resolution I would love to see you (and me) strive for, it is to not stop caring. Don’t stop caring about living your dreams. Don’t stop caring about losing weight and being healthier. Don’t stop caring about staying connected to friends and family. Don’t stop caring, above all, about staying connected to your church and staying connected to God. If the world has shown us unpredictability, celebrating another Christmas has shown us stability. This continued faith in, and service to, God is the very reason we have hope and a reason to care, no matter what the future brings.

From one light to another,
Pastor Hannah Loughman

Photo by Jay Cross