2020 may have been the most difficult year of your life. As 2021 arrives tomorrow morning, you feel as if you're just hanging on.
The Bible has something to say about life in tough times: Don't just hang on. Press on.
In retelling the story of his conversion and call to ministry, Paul wrote this to the churches at Philippi: "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it [becoming like Christ] my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13,14).
When I consider the danger of looking back, I think immediately of Lot's wife. God had promised to rescue Lot and his family from Sodom before He destroyed the city because of the immoral lifestyle of its population. As Lot, his wife, and their two daughters fled to Zoar, his wife turned back, contrary to God's command, to gaze with longing at what she had left behind. She became a pillar of salt, perhaps being encased in the rain of brimstone God was dumping from the heavens. Looking back ended in death.
The reality is that pressing ahead can also end in death. Paul gained his "prize of the upward call of God" by being executed for his faith, most likely by beheading just outside Rome. So why would one work so hard to meet the same tragic end?
The difference is what came afterward. Lot's wife lost everything she had lived for. Paul gained what he had lived for. He had described his raison d'etre to the Philippians in the first chapter of his epistle: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). I remember a motto I used to have hanging in my office in Nova Scotia: "If I have everything but Christ, I have nothing. If I have nothing but Christ, I have everything." Furnished one year by the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, this brief statement encapsulated Paul's description of his life's purpose.
We have no idea what lies ahead in 2021. It could be relief or it could be even more intense suffering. That is up to God, not to scientists, politicians, or vaccines. But if you know Him, don't just hang on. Press on. Hurl yourself at this new year with faith, joy, and anticipation. Don't live for what was, as it will never return. Don't live for what could be, as it might never happen. Live for Christ, and 2021 will be a good year no matter what it brings.
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