What I have learnt in 2020
A friend asked me recently what has 2020 taught me and I had to stop and really think about it.
We’ve faced a global pandemic where it shook not just our global world but our own individual worlds. Where we were forced into isolation, we saw people lose their jobs, we lost the ability to see family and friends, and many people even lost their lives.
But yet here we are almost back to normal, having just celebrated Christmas and about to enter into a new year and I feel that in the midst of so much happening in 2020 both good and bad that I have learnt so much.
So what is it that I have learnt this year in 2020?
It’s the little things that matter.
Well the first thing I have learnt is that the things we know, our daily routines, the things we do and have every single day could change just like that. Realising that we don’t have guarantees in this life woke me up to realise that I need to take better care of the people in my life and the things I have; because it could be gone in a split second.
But that doesn’t mean I should live in fear; it simply means I am aware and grateful for every little thing and big thing in my life. It means I need to stop taking the little things for granted.
Time is valuable.
Before the pandemic, I knew time was important but I didn’t realise how valuable it really was. On average we spend 26 years of our lives sleeping, approx. 8 years of our lives watching TV, approx. 3 years of our lives on social media and approx. 1.3 years in exercising which means we spend twice as much time on social media.
What does that say about how we are using our time? I know that as soon as restrictions lifted I didn’t want to go back to the business of life and that means I needed to understand the value of time and apply it to every area of my life; so that I don’t wake up one day at 84 years old and wonder where my life went.
It means being in the moment when we sit down for a coffee with a friend. It means calling our loved ones more regularly. It means doing more of the things we enjoy. It means clocking off at 5pm and knowing work can wait until tomorrow.
Know my priorities.
Every year for the past 10 years I have made a resolution to lose weight and get healthy. However, to no avail I would remain the same or had even put more weight on by the end of that year. Every year I would tell myself this is the year I would put my health first but over the course of the year I had managed to put everything else first rather than my health.
But knowing what is important to us, should become our priorities, and those priorities should always remain at the top of the list. Maybe for you it’s to make more time for God, or your family. Maybe it’s to reach a certain savings goal or pay off debt. Maybe it’s to travel, or to progress in your career. Maybe it’s a fitness goal like mine. But year and year over you feel like everything else in your world gets top priority rather than the things that are really important to you.
I’ve decided my health will be a top priority for 2021 and beyond and every month I will review to make sure I am on track and if I know other things are creeping up that will be a detriment to my health then I will need to rearrange some things in my life.
Maybe 2020 helped remind you what your priorities should be.
God is the only steadfast thing in my life.
I mentioned before that nothing is guaranteed, which is true but there is one thing that is, and that is God and His steadfast love for us. Even in the midst of chaos, He remains the same, every hour, every day, every year. And that is what gets me through the toughest, most rawest and vulnerable seasons of my life, even a year like 2020.
The church is not just a building. The last thing I learnt is that the church is not just a 4 wall building. The church is us. And as we move forward into 2021, my prayer is that we don’t limit God and the church to brick and mortar, but rather we seek God in how to take church out beyond the walls and out into our communities. God is not limited by buildings and neither should we be.
What has 2020 taught you?
💛
Sarah-Jane xx
References
Campbell, L. 2017. We’ve broke down your entire life into years spent doing tasks. Retrieved from https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.huffingtonpost.com.au/amp/2017/10/18/weve-broken-down-your-entire-life-into-years-spent-doing-tasks_a_23248153/