Happy New Year! Most of us will not mourn the passing of 2020. It was a year of fear and strife. It was a year of lost freedoms and lost loved ones. It was a year we may want to forget but will likely remember forever. When the year began, remember how many people said 2020 would be the year of 20/20 Vision & Clarity?  That the number of the year: 2020 represented so much hope and promise.  Did that play out?  I think it did, just not the way we expected.

In 2020 the U.S. Culture deemed the church non-essential. We saw church doors closed on penalty of a fine. The church was extricated from its buildings.  We saw this as a problem, but God can use it for good.  Removing the 4-walls from the church forced the church to be everywhere.  Our communities are hurting and hopeless, and the church is the messenger of healing and hope. 

So, where is the clarity for 2020?  Our country expressed its deep woundedness through the cultural tension it encountered.  Where is the clarity? Only Jesus can solve the pain and hurt that afflicts our great land. Clarity comes through understanding that buildings full of churchgoers do not solve community problems. When people are not in the church buildings but are in the community, they can solve the issues through love, empathy, and understanding.

Clarity 2021 focuses on putting that revelation into action and not losing forward momentum. The church, the Body of Christ, can bring hope to this land.  We can bring Jesus to every city and state, workplace, and home.  Jesus is the answer to poverty, marital discord, hatred, murder, and other violence. Jesus is the answer to World Peace too.

So, in 2021 what is going to be different for you. How will you take clarity into 2021 and apply what you’ve learned to the new normal, the new paradigm? How will you remain extricated from the church building and planted in your community to bring healing, hope, forgiveness, and love?  What does it look like for you?

For us? Martha and I will highlight your stories for everyone to hear the amazing work God is doing in your life, your work, and your community. Praise God for new beginnings and second chances. We get both as this year gets started.

1 Cor. 13:12  Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Happy New Year.

Jim & Martha