I’m quite myopic, so I usually can’t see what’s ahead too well. Thankfully, hindsight is 20-20, so as this year is becoming hindsight, I’m starting to get a decent view of it. 2020 has taught me more than most years have. Here are a few of the points that stick out:
- God’s timing is perfect. I knew this theoretically, but it was neat to experience this in my trip to Thailand. When I booked my tickets to and from Thailand, covid was basically unheard of. I didn’t know that I would be getting back just before border restrictions got crazy. I didn’t know that I would be getting back just when my coworker would leave and not be able to come back to work for a month. My trip ended up happening in the perfect window of opportunity for me to only be away when my absence wouldn’t cause any stress to the team I work with.
- Young minds are capable of more than they’re usually given credit for – and efforts to unlock this potential are often more rewarding than would be expected.
- Attitude makes more of a difference in work than I used to think it did – and words have a huge impact on attitude. When the workers I was supervising were talking about positive things, they would accomplish much more than when they were talking about negative things. I’ve seen that attitude can be contagious – and the best way for a supervisor to change his team’s attitude is to work closely with his team as much as is reasonable. Spending time with the team is worth it, even if this means having to work late to get other duties done.
- A few minutes of biking and listening to God’s word at midday makes the day way better.
- God’s plans are the same as what I would choose if I could see everything clearly. (See Power Trip)
- When I do the pathetic little that I can to “work for God,” He does way more for me. This year I started this website because I wanted to do a little something to share about God’s character. It’s the best way for me to share that I can think of, but it’s really small. I’ve tried other things to make an impact in the world around me, such as calendars with Bible verses, but everything I’ve done has amounted to very little. This year I was amazed to hear an estimate of the worldwide impact that the school where I work makes. God gave me the privilege of working with a team that achieves way more together than the sum of our individual efforts.
- God’s love is relentless for even the worst of us humans. Recently I’ve been reading the accounts of King Ahab and King Zedekiah. Both of them were terrible kings, whose persistent bad choices led to the degradation and destruction of their subjects. Yet God tried repeatedly to save them; and minimized their punishments whenever they followed His guidance for even a moment. And this love wasn’t just for Israelites: the stories of how God treated King Ben Hadad and the Syrians is a good example of this.
I hope you had an awesome year, with plenty of evidence of God’s care for you – but I hope this new year will be way better.
Will