By REV. DR. BRIAN GIGEE
“2020 VISION – sort of!”
“Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days–you would not believe if you were told.”
– Habakkuk 1:5
I’m reminded that a lot of people have been reading this column these past 12 months. I don’t know how many, but enough to make me continue. It’s good to talk about the things we believe in plus I like writing about faith. So, if these weekly thoughts bring affirmation to your life… then good for us… and good for God! If these posts provide you a challenge requiring a “second opinion” … then good for all of us! There are many who are all in for God… whomever they sense God to be. And still there are others who don’t give a care… living their lives as if God dares to exist and if indeed does… is worthy to be ignored. And then there are those who live somewhere in the middle leaning one way or the other depending on how loud the previous two camps get. So, yeah, faith matters, and it seems the behavior of humanity is reflected by what the world believes.
Over 20 years ago, now, after a decade of ministry in New Orleans, I went to the driver’s license station to trade in my Louisiana version for one from Texas. It felt good! I had already been wearing glasses using them only at a distance for ball games or driving, not using them at all to read. I had them in my pocket when I went in for my exam. The test was quick and easy leaving me only to stand in front of the camera for my anticipated mug shot. As I came to the completion of the licensing process, I was asked to peer into the view finder and read the fifth line. With my glasses still in my pocket, I began to say aloud, “S, V, L, B” and then the clerk interrupted and said, “Sir, they are numbers.” Uh-oh! I pulled my specs out of my pocket and tried again. Sure enough. My vision had been restored! My ego took a bit more time.
As this year 2020 began, it included a bunch of talk about ‘vision’ and making plans for seeing our way into a brighter and better new decade! Whether we be church, a company, a club, in a family or whatever, the good work of projecting the days to come was full steam. Then there was this report from Seattle. Then California. Then Atlanta and New York City. It was only a matter of time that 2020’s vision got blurred… stalled by a thing visible only under a microscope and yet powerful enough to challenge the economy and bring schools and businesses to an abrupt albeit temporary halt.
And we’ve all shifted. Some more easily than others. We’ve moved from all kinds of planned workshops and trainings about the next 30 months to figuring out a way to maintain for the next 30 days and sometimes, even, for the next 30 hours. Again, we’ve all had to shift. And we need to see that this has happening to us all as we offer our thanks to those who have helped big time… especially the ones on the front lines.
Do we see an end to this? Can we trust the projections of our world’s leaders to give us a date to pin on our calendars to put Covid-19 to rest? Maybe we can all agree, “only God knows.” But, what of us in the meantime?
Auschwitz survivor, Viktor Frankl suggested this… “Everything can be taken from a person but one thing; the last of the human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Isn’t that a great view?
So far, 2020 looks different than at first glance. Our year with 2020 vision… sort of. But there IS more to come! Keep looking among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! In our days, God just might be doing another new thing!
Rev. Dr. Brian K. Gigee is a long-time resident of Pearland, having pastored four churches in Texas and Louisiana over the last four decades. Follow his blog ‘murmurings’ at https://briangigee.wordpress.com/. Your comments and/or questions are always welcomed to godworks247365@gmail.com.
