“A better day is on the way…”
I love the sentiment this shirt carries (clearly enough to wear it). But it’s caused me to take a step back for clarity, and for an adjustment of expectations.
A new year is on the horizon—just a few short days away. And for the first time in my adult life, I’ve found myself primarily focused on the relief of leaving the past versus glad anticipation of what lies ahead.
I doubt I’m alone in this. Still, I’ve sensed a common narrative which supposes 2021 will be full of hope and resurrected dreams. New jobs. New love. New life. New policies. New programs. The slate wiped clean. “We’re done with 2020…what a waste of a year…here’s hoping for a better one.”
But, what if we’re wrong…
What makes 2021 so special? Will our circumstances really change all that much? Will this new year truly be a “better day” or will we wake up Jan 1st in the same ol’ mess we made our bed in the night before?
What will you do if nothing changes? Where will you turn for peace?
We cannot control the temperature of 2021. Individually we can nudge it, collectively we can impact it, but we can never control it.
It could be amazing, it could be awful, or it could be just plain dull. Personally, I have sensed that there will be more difficulties in 2021 than we have experienced thus far. I believe it will be a time for endurance fueled by Truth, not false hope or toxic positivity. A time that will test and try us, and refine us if we’ll let it.
So, if that intuition holds true, I am determined to brace and brave those waves as they come. Because a better day IS on the way. The day that this broken earth passes away. And the day it is made brand new (Revelation 21:1).
“When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.” (Ecclesiastes 7:14)
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