2020 – A Very Good Year!

(Plain Text Version)

2020 HAS BEEN A VERY GOOD YEAR!

But it was a very difficult year.

Very few people have escaped hardship or danger from the COVID-19 pandemic.  For my family, our biggest difficulty has been missing our usual get-togethers.  Others have much greater distress.  Health care workers have worked too hard for a long time.  Small businesses have failed.  Those at the bottom of the economic ladder have become poorer.  Thousands of the elderly in nursing homes have died without seeing their loved ones. 
In addition to the pandemic, other serious problems have entered the picture, like riots and  a divisive turn to American politics.  Many civic leaders have used the pandemic to increase their powers.  Many people have contributed to the pandemic by ignoring reasonable health measures.
Sooner or later, the pandemic will end, but what lies in store for our society?

Is this a time to be happy?
This is the time to think about what happiness really is.  Most dictionaries say that happiness is a form of “feeling good”.  One definition is: “a state of well-being or contentment” without telling us what “well-being” is.
These definitions are useful, but is there a deeper type of happiness, one which isn’t taken away when things go wrong?  This happiness would remain, even if everything else is taken away.  To be in friendship with God is the deepest kind of happiness. 
When our relationship with God is healthy, we are assured that we will be rewarded for patiently enduring the sufferings of this life.  But what about our daily life?  We are set free from anxiety, and we have the wisdom to effectively help ourselves and our neighbors.
Picture yourself as having one foot in this world, and the other foot in the next.  Then look at the trials of 2020, one at a time.

Yes, we can be happy right now!