2021: Anchoring our Outlook

2021 makes me nervous. I don’t think I’m alone. Both in my own experience and in the world around us. The reality is the last couple of years have not been the easiest. 2019 brought the unexpected diagnosis of my wife with terminal cancer and her passing seven months later. 2020 brought the Coronavirus pandemic and the upheaval that has come with it. As I look back over the last couple of years and look ahead to this new year, I find myself reflecting, processing, and some of the lessons learned over the last years as we look to the future ahead. 

So for what its worth, I’m going to be writing over the last several weeks about the here are the five things that are anchoring my outlook on 2021.  The first is simply this,

Hope isn’t found in circumstance but in embracing our “belovedness” 

In times of crises like the world we find ourselves in reveal something deep about where we’re looking for meaning. At its core, hope, is about the conviction that we will be given or receive what is needed to find peace and purpose in our days. The trouble is what we put our hope in will often be guided by temporary things in this life like success, circumstance, or favorable outcomes. What if the very things that we are putting our hope in set us up for a life of disappointment and hopelessness? 

Dave Lomas in his book “The Truest Thing About You” writes, 

“You will not find your identity in what you have, but in who has you. You will not find your identity in what you do, but in what has been done for you. And you will not find your identity in what you desire, but in who has desired—at infinite cost to Himself—a relationship with you. Christ is your life. He gives you a new identity and will work that new identity out in your life until the day when He appears. On that day you will finally see clearly, as Christ sees you now. You will know as you are known. And you will understand that the truest thing about you—that in Christ God called you His beloved in whom He is well pleased—has been true all along. And is now true forever. Believe. Trust. Base your entire identity and worth on that fact.” 

Embracing our belovedness means anchoring our hope not in the news of virus spread rates but in the fact that because of the power and work of Christ we are carriers of the Holy Spirit at work in and through our lives. He promises not an ease of circumstance but a certain hope that we are loved beyond all that we can imagine. 

What does embracing our belovedness look like? First, I think we have to recognize that embracing our belovedness is more about the work of “receiving” that “accomplishing.” We’re not fighting to receive something that isn’t already true. We’ve already been claimed by Christ as His beloved if we’ve responded by making Him the master of our life. Rather we’re allowing him to reframe the way we look at Him, ourselves, and the world around us. It’s the conviction that good is ours not because of our circumstances, but because of what HE has done. It’s why with the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:38-39 we can be fully convinced that nothing will separate us from the love of God. Nothing can separate us from that love but are we deepening in our capacity to receive it?

Secondly, we examine our hopes. As we look to 2021, what will make a “good year?” Is it the irradiation of COVID-19? A job promotion? Weight loss? Or the reality that God is working out His belovedness in you? That He has loved you and called you His own and He is working His perfect work in and through you. Coming to that place will require a brutal honesty, that in step with the writers of Scripture and rich tradition of brothers and sisters in the faith. That’s where we’ll pick up next time. 

Blessed to be on this journey of following Jesus with you!

Ryan