2020. What can you say.

You were supposed to be a cool year. We had cool New Year glasses made to wear. We made cool resolutions to enter the cool New Year.

2020

It just rings off the tip of your tongue.

Big year. Big expectations. Ready. Set. Go… straight to a screeching halt. Little did we know when we were all ringing in the New Year that two months down the road everything… and I mean EVERYTHING would look nothing like we expected.

Expectations. We all have them. We certainly had them for 2020. And, being a parent for the last 15 years, I know we as parents have them for our children and our family. We expected that our kids would be in school. That the soccer season would take place. We expected to go to nationals for Morgan’s dance team. And those are just a few small expectations.

Instead, soccer games were canceled. Dance competitions didn’t happen. Everything shut down and we were stranded in our home for months.

Instead of living in fear… Instead of living in disappointment… we chose to look at this experience as a time where we could come together as a family. To spend this time bonding and looking inward together and building up our relationships together. Sure, there was a time when we were disappointed. But we didn’t live there.

Having expectations is a good thing. Expectations in and of themselves are good. We should certainly have them in every area of our lives. But there are times, like we’re living in now, when our expectations have the potential to derail our lives and our mental health, especially when we have expectations without perspective.

When reality doesn’t match our expectations, it’s easy to get angry or sad, to stay in the funk of disappointment. That’s what happens when we don’t have perspective alongside our expectations.

Expectations without perspective leads to life derailment.

It’s normal to experience sadness and anger and frustration when expectations aren’t met. 2020 might not be what we wanted it to be. It’s definitely not what we expected. Fear. Disappointment. Sadness. Anger. Hopelessness. These are all words that have defined 2020.

These words are the definition of expectation without perspective. These are real emotions that we all experience. But we can’t live there. Perspective helps us move on. Perspective helps us see to the other side and helps give us the ability to move beyond our circumstances.

Perspective matters. 

How you see the world. How you see others. How you see your life and your circumstances matters. It literally directs your emotions. It directs your life. It’s what keeps us on track or get back on a path that leads to hopefulness and joy… even in the middle of chaos and destruction.

Fear. Disappointment. Sadness. Anger. Hopelessness. With perspective, these words can be turned into… Courage. Encouragement. Joy. Hopefulness.

Perspective matters.

What 2020 has taught me more than any year is this…

The only thing I can control is my perspective. I control how I look at my circumstances and the world around me. It’s also taught me that I need help in keeping the right perspective.

I can’t do it alone.

But, if I surround myself with the right people and pursue God, the alignment of my perspective will be on target.

Jesus had the opportunity to look at his world and humanity and be depressed. He was being beaten and persecuted… He was being called a liar… He was accused… all of it was not justified. They hung him on a criminal’s cross even though He didn’t deserve to be killed.

But He chose a perspective to look at the world and humanity with compassion and hopefulness.

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34

There is hope. There is a perspective that we can choose that is only found in the hope of Jesus and encouraged by the people we surround ourselves with.

2020 definitely hasn’t aligned with what I expected it to be. I thought it would look differently. But we’ve chosen as a family to take advantage of our circumstances and fill our lives and relationships with hope, instead of letting our circumstances take advantage of us.

We all have a choice… will we be filled with hopelessness… or hopefulness…

It all depends on our perspective.