What was 2020? (Clarity into our Hearts)

We are in the next 365 days of the world. Even though the old year of 2020 is behind all of us (and many would say is "finally" behind us), those 366 previous days are not so far in our past. We cannot simply discard the previous year in the same way we can our old calendars. Those days don't just go in the trash. Everything that we did during them, according to whatever goals we may have had, will directly or indirectly shape our lives. Each year is the effect of the previous year and the cause of the next. Right now, we are little more than a week into the effects of the previous year. So, let's look back on it for a moment.

I, like many people, came into 2020 rather superstitously and foolishly considering that its double double digits were a, so to speak, good omen of some kind. I heard many wise-cracks about how the year meant the return of the roaring 20s and good times. People seemed generally optimistic about the year, myself included. Then, it all went up in flames. By the end of the year, many people I know did not ceremoniously say so long to 2020, as much as they told 2020 to crawl in a hole and die. I'll not reiterate what came about in the world, during 2020. I am writing to address an aspect we should consider about 2020; something we should learn.

At some point in the summer of last year, I began to refer to 2020 as "The Year of Clarity." This title jokingly comes from the number eye doctors give patients with perfect vision, 20 20. What I primarily mean to say is that 2020 was the year that everyone could see clearly what people are like. Well, did you like what you saw in others as well as yourself? I didn't.

Many things that happened during 2020 stretched people to their limits. The common and unobtrusive parts of our life were all effected by the strains unleashed that year. For many it seemed there was nowhere they could go or to no one they could go to find release or reprieve from the tortures of the year. What did people show, during these times? They showed frustration, stress, bitterness, derision, corruption, rage, depression, fear, isolation, intolerance, cowardice and mortality. That is what I saw in others as well as myself with the clarity that came from the prying and revealing times of 2020.

There is no reason for us to be surprised by this. The Bible tells us just as much. We all move and act in accordance with what is in our hearts. According to the Scriptures, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus said, "out of the heart come evil thoughts-murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander" (Matthew 15:19). Our hearts with which we are born are wicked and hideous. If you are too proud to think of yourself as prone to sinfulness, know this, "The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished" (Proverbs 16:5). Do not take God's diagnosis of your heart lightly.

This campaign poster was made as a joke, but it unkowingly tells the truth
that everyone is a born sinner without exception (Romans 3:23).

We may not always see this truer darker side of all of us, but God does. He saw it last year and the year before that and the year before that. We may have needed the clarity that came with 2020 to remind us who we are and what we do, but God knows all our hearts all the time. He is the light that shines in on our most feared places to be exposed. He is the light that has come into this world to call people back into His light, but people naturally love the darkness and flee from Him. This is what is meant in the gospel of John where it reads, "Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed" (3:20). 

This is dark news, to be sure, and it is the truth. We are all born with warped and sinful hearts. This is who we are, but this is not how God leaves us. 

It is written to those who follow the LORD, He says to them, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26). Apart from God, following our wicked hearts, we are dead, but with a new heart from God we can live and live abundantly. As Jesus says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they [my followers] may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). All you need to experience this present and eternal abundant life is to do as God says, "Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:22). When we turn away from our sins and are saved, we are no longer ashamed to come into the light. As it is written in the Scriptures, we will have all our sins removed from us like a filthy shirt, and we will be given new clean and beautiful clothes (Zechariah 3:4). We will be children of God (John 1:12). We will have new life in Christ.

Let us be the first to welcome you

Welcome to the

Life you thought was too good to be true

Welcome to the new

- MercyMe

We must turn away from the wicked desires of our hearts of stone, and earnestly desire to receive a new heart in Jesus Christ. Without Jeses Christ we can do no good, and neither can others. If we desire good things to be ever present and thriving in our world, then we all need the salvation of Christ. This need for salvation is not simply something for us in this year, but something God has placed in every heart that lived in every year. Charles Spurgeon, a great preacher who lived in Victorian Britain, told this to his church congregation on the new year of 1856:

Take this, dear friends, for a new year's text, both ye who love the Lord, 

and ye who are only looking for the first time. Christian! in all thy troubles 

through this year, look unto God and be saved. In all thy trials and afflictions, 

look unto Christ, and find deliverance. In all thine agony, poor soul, in all 

thy repentance for thy guilt, look unto Christ, and find pardon. This year, 

remember to put thine eyes heavenward, and thine heart heavenward, too.

Charles Spurgeon was 22 when he gave that sermon, so don't let anyone
look down on you, Christian, because of your youth (1 Timothy 4:12). 

2020 brought us all many trials and afflictions, and each year will bring new trials and afflictions (some years more than others). How we face them is up to us. Will we fix our eyes on God, knowing that through Him we have salvation and can do good things for others, or will we stay miserable and deceived by our wicked hearts? The choice is ours. As for me, I pray that this year I will grow in Christ, even though I fall short of His glory every day. I pray I will continue to serve the LORD and remember to bless His name no matter what comes.

Blessed Be Your Name

In the land that is plentiful

Where Your streams of abundance flow

Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name

When I'm found in the desert place

Though I walk through the wilderness

Blessed Be Your name

- Matt Redman

How will you fill your first month of the new year?

Sources

• The Bible (New International Version)
• Spurgeon: Sovereignty and Salvation
• MercyMe: Welcome to the New
• Matt Redman: Blessed Be Your Name