2020 Vision!

Habakkuk 2:2-3 Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.

I have had to catch up on a lot of Dr. appointments that were postponed because of covid, as I am sure you are too. Today was the eye Dr. This is a pretty routine eye exam and vision check for new glasses, but because I had a retina tear years ago, the Dr. dilates my eyes each year to be sure the surgery is ‘holding’. It is! This year when my eyes were not dilated I was looking at the chart. When the optometrist kept reducing the size of the letters and I was not able to make out one letter from the other I became very anxious! I realized that the fear of not having the answer was making me jittery.

When she finally did dilate my eyes, it got worse. As she was asking me to move my eyes left, than right, I was taking deep breaths. My vision was very foggy and I was very uncomfortable. I remembered times like this in school when the teacher asked a question, I did not know the answer, and sooner or later she would call on me for the answer, and I was panicking! Covid-19 has made us all feel this way. we don’t know the answer!

At the beginning of this year I remember quoting that ‘2020vision’ statement. I even prayed it would be a year when we would have clear vision for the future of the USA. Everything was so hopeful and positive. Then suddenly we began to hear rumblings of a virus coming our way. No problem, we have had viruses before. Then the rumblings got louder, longer and more serious. I believe this is when our vision began to get blurry. We did not see clearly that we needed to have a calm approach and put this into perspective. It appeared that this virus was mostly attacking the elderly, yet we were all locked down. It appeared that the virus did not seem to attack most young people, yet we shut down schools. We did not know enough yet about the virus to make helpful changes to behaviors, so we needlessly wiped down out groceries, our mail, our clothing etc. Now we know more so what have we learned, and what is our vision going forward?

First, we learned we are extremely social people! We want people we love with us when we have babies, have birthday’s, celebrate Anniversaries, and even at our death bed’s. Much of that was stolen from us by this virus, our invisible enemy.

We learned that we depend on the items we need to be available to us. When it is not, we become very resourceful. Our concern over a lack of toilet paper drove us to figure out other items to use for that purpose. Not my choice, but it helped some. We do tend to have a herd mentality though. When we had so much time on our hands we all seemed to be making bread. There became a shortage of yeast. Disinfectant became a commodity. A friend of mine pays $9.00 for a can of disinfectant spray from his ‘underground’ source. He’s a truck-driver and needs to spray the truck down every trip so he pays it.

Yes, we are resourceful and creative. Take a look at the masks people have created. But, it’s time we took back what the enemy stole from us! It’s time we faced the virus with our full Armour on and our Faith in the protection God promised us in Psalm 91, fully engaged. We who say we are Christ followers need to Rise Up! We have been too easily frightened and I believe the enemy is grinning. We need a clear vision of our future with God directing the ship!

Let’s take back the Vision that Habakkuk promised would come. God promises peace, health, prosperity and a life of abundance. Put that in front of you every day and cast out fear, doubt, sickness and poverty. Remember, we have what we tolerate. Don’t tolerate negative pronouncements over your life when God has already promised good!

John 10:10 ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.