Holy moly. What a year. There is so much to say and also zero of the right words to say it. My word coming into 2020 was “Dwell”.

I have major side eye for that. Really? Dwell? A little on the nose, don’t ya think?

Well, dwell I did. In my house, like the rest of the world. And lots of the fluff of life was stripped away. It was super uncomofortable and unfun. And the stripping away of comforts, false or otherwise, will continue to be a less than enjoyable experience.

I’m not here to tell you that 2021 will somehow mean all is well. Vaccine or not, the pandemic is still happening. All the votes are in and yet, the election is still unsettled. The protests have quieted a bit but Black bodies are still piling up because of a system that is set up for their failure.

So, a New Year’s Even countdown changes very little. No more than any sunrise. However, it does give us a grand opportunity to reflect and dream. I created some graphics to help you do just that. They are formatted to be instagram stories, but work just as well as tools to simple help you process. Enjoy! I’d love to hear your reflections.

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Just for the sake of historical recording, here are some happenings in 2020 that boiled their way down to learning to dwell more than decorate this life with all the clutter.

–Corona Virus stopped the world and we retreated, reluctantly to our caves. And the life of teaching middle schoolers became an entirely new adventure.

-The foundational white supremacy of this nation became impossible to ignore, though many still choose to walk about with their eyes tightly locked shut.

-Churches fell apart. Seemingly because of the pandemic and political divide. I’d argue it may possibly because God is inviting us to be a bit more creative and intentional in being The Church. But, hey, maybe I’m wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time.

–The election. I cannot be nice about this one so I’ll just leave it at this: democracy is important and undeniably, deeply flawed.

There is infinitely more we could each add to this list. The personal battles of depression, divorce, death of loved ones and dreams… There is no end to the list of difficulties that 2020 gifted us. And true, there is no end to the goodness of God. But one does not cancel out the other. You can believe God is good and let a few choice words fly from your mouth about the wounds that were caused or unearthed by this last year. You can dwell, in stripped down honesty, with the King of your faith. You do not have to decorate the halls of your life with pretty words of a utopian facade in order to live this life well.