It’s somewhat comical, if not down right disturbing, that the first blog I wrote this year was titled “Playing With Fire in 2020.” It wasn’t long after that Australia was literally on fire, and, well you know the rest of the story. No, I’m not claiming to have seen the future. That post was all about ridding ourselves of the unnecessary lower growth of yuckiness in our lives that suffocates the beautiful top growth of God’s will for us. I could not have known that the metaphor would become a literal reality for many of us.
But here we are, on the last day of 2020, or the early days of 2021 if you are both reading this later and the calendar mercifully switched to 1/1/21 at midnight rather than 12/32/20. So while it seems that my high hopes for the world on 1/1/20 have been dashed by the circumstances we faced, I’m trying to see how perhaps this was a necessary part of the deal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating that this year was good, that it wasn’t tragic, or seeking some divine silver lining for the sake of optimism. What I’m saying is this. What if 2020 was an apocalypse?
You’re probably thinking… what the heck is he talking about. The world didn’t end. Also, I thought this guy was level headed? So hear me out and read on because I promise this thing is going somewhere.
What is an Apocalypse?
Well, conventionally in contemporary English when we say apocalypse we are referring to the end of the world. Movies, TV, and books have been obsessed with this phenomenon for as long as I’ve been alive, one of the many aspects of living in the post Cold-War era. But likely the most poured over, written about, and misunderstood and interpreted “apocalypse” is the one that sits at the end of your Bible. Oh the millions of dollars made selling bad interpretations of that thing. And don’t get me started with the many adults whose most vivid memory of childhood Christianity is the way they were scared into the thought that they might be “left behind” in some sort of rapture event. It makes me sick.
The last book of the Bible is named “The Revelation to John” in English. It’s name in Greek is “The Apocalypse to John.” Our word for apocalypse comes from the Greek apoc-a-loop-sis, which did not mean “the end of the world.” It meant, a revelation. Specifically, in the world of the Bible, it meant a peeling back of the facade of the world to get a glimpse at the powers, authorities, and systems that were in play. For John, he saw all kinds of terrible things that symbolized the brutality and machinations of the Roman Empire, but also the comfort of the ultimate victory of Jesus over these powers.
But this isn’t a critique of bad end-times theology, though I’d love to have that conversation with anyone. This is an appeal to look at 2020 as a bit of an apocalypse, a revelation, a period of time that peeled back the facade of our world, of America, and of our own individual lives to invite us to take a look at what’s really going on.
And I know that sounds strange, because I’ll be the first to admit that I’m confused daily about what is actually happening. I’m not here to debate conspiracy theories or the problem of finding reliable news (or if there is a problem) etc. No, what I’m here to convince you of, is that we have a better grasp today on who we are collectively as a nation and as individuals if we will allow ourselves to see through the veil.
2020 Vision
Pastors of the world collectively joked about, and some executed, sermons and series of teachings playing on the pun of 2020 vision. WE DIDN’T KNOW. We didn’t know that we’d get new glasses. But here we are, staring at Zoom and Facebook wearing lenses as thick as coke bottles, nestled into frames of over-caffeination and held together by a single PPE Loan bandaid at the nose bridge. But, at least we have been given something to look at.
We can see that our world is far more interconnected than we ever thought possible. A virus spread across it with the ease of a broadband internet connection in a matter of months. As the first weeks of “we are all in this together” faded out to the politicization of literally every single aspect of the COVID-19 crisis we began to see that there are two very different worlds existing amongst one another in our nation. That reality was exacerbated by the killings of Black Americans and the responses that were seen. Topped of by a nasty election cycle, we have seen what’s really going on
(even if we don’t necessarily think we have all of the info). There are at least 2 very distinct, very different, and very angry Americas. When the veil of our economic security and scientific superiority fell, what was left is this. A revelation of what has been happening and existing for a long, long time. So we have work to do, and I believe that seeing and acknowledging the problem is the first step to fixing it, so my hope for us as a people is that 2020 has shown us the disgusting truth.
But I care more about you. And me of course. This year has shown me what I’m made of. Which, besides macaroni and cheese and ramen noodles, is a whole world of hurt, confusion, determination, and deep care for the world around me. However, that hasn’t spared me from the mess that 2020 has caused or likely uncovered inside of me. I’ve been very fortunate, and I’ve used this year for a lot of positive things. However, it seems that every moment not spent engrossed in running, language acquisition, or some book or another, I’m fighting with others. Not literally, mostly in my head. I’ve got my natural opinions, my professional opinions, and my biblical opinions, and as you know, so does the rest of the world. Seeing as we’ve all been relegated to our screens, it’s only natural that we flex those things every chance we get. And it gets ugly. I keep it mild on the outside, but I’ve seen how the isolation from real community with people has changed the way that I think about and love them. All I see is their Internet personalities, forgetting that they are people that I deeply love, and more importantly, are God’s beloved.
Maybe your story is similar. Maybe all of the junk I wanted us to burn out on Jan 1st was just beginning to break the surface of the ground. Maybe it was all seeds beneath the soil. Maybe the controlled burn we tried just couldn’t get all of the mess. The controlled burn might have been mere warmth and fertilizer for that mess in our lives to grow and begin to choke the light out. Maybe a burn wasn’t the answer. Maybe what 2020 has done is revealed to us that which we could not see yet, and what 2021 is inviting us to do is to put on the gloves and get digging. Perhaps we need to pull out this mess piece by piece until all that is left is the freshly tilled soil that receives the seeds of the Kingdom of God with gladness and sprouts goodness, mercy, and love for the rest of our days.
Grace and Recovery 