I Pray 2020 Changed Us

This year, 2020. . .enough said. 

But really, this has been a hard year for all of us. 

Some of us have lost loved ones and were unable to say our goodbyes or be with them as they took their last breaths. 

Some of us have had the virus and remember the fear you experienced when the doctor said you tested positive. Maybe you remember struggling for that next breath and the terror as you were admitted to the ICU. Or maybe it didn’t affect you so much and you remember thinking, “what’s the big deal?” 

Some of us are healthcare workers and can not unsee what we’ve seen. We’ve seen people die and held their hands as they took their last breath. We’ve seen doctors make life and death decisions everyday. We’ve experienced what can only be described as a “war zone” because we’ve fought to keep everyone alive but couldn’t save them all. 

Some of us are retail workers who debated whether our jobs and the $12/hr. paycheck was worth the risk. But we did it anyways because for once, others were depending on us. For once, our jobs were appreciated. Instead of being treated like service workers, we were treated as essential workers. 

Some of us have felt hopeless. We’ve isolated ourselves for so long and we don’t know where the light is at the end of the tunnel. We don’t know how we’ll ever reacclimate to the real world again, what that even looks like, and we wonder when we’ll ever know that it’s “safe” again. 

Whoever you are and whatever you’ve experienced this year, I pray it’s changed you. 

I pray you’ve learned grace and have learned to rely on your faith more (because God only knows how this all will end). 

I pray you’ve learned to appreciate the person next to you. Whether that’s the retail worker or the teacher. Whether that’s the doctor or the garbage man. I pray you’ve learned to “love your neighbor.” 

I pray you’ve learned gratitude for the little things, from the Starbucks drink to the Sunday family dinners that you took for granted before. 

I pray that we make it out of this pandemic. I pray that it ends sooner rather than later and I pray that the lives lost will minimize. I pray that when this year ends, that 2021 offers new hope. 

But what I pray for most, is that we all come out of 2020 having learned to be better, more loving, and more faithful to our Father above. 

I pray this year has changed us.