Press ‘Join’
By Annmarie Miles
(From the January - March 2021 issue of VOX)
Every January you see them, the New Year social media posts saying how good it is to see the back of last year and how much hope there is for this new year. This January they are in abundance. 2020 did not go to plan.
You think?!
But what was the plan? What were your New Year’s resolutions for 2020? OK, so they probably didn’t include staring at your computer every day saying, “You’re still on mute,” or like me, spending the first 15 minutes of church holding up a sign to the camera which said, YOU HAVE TO PRESS ‘JOIN’ (yes, I actually made a sign so I could silently communicate with those still trying to get on to the church Zoom at 11.10am).
My resolutions are pretty much the same every year. They are various versions of - eat (less), pray (more), love (everyone). The wording might change but really, I start every year wanting the same thing: to spend more time with God, to work on my physical health, to develop my spiritual life, to sort out the pile of stuff in the corner of the bedroom. At the start of last year, that was my plan, Then 2020 happened.
“Our God was not taken by surprise when 2020 started to fall apart for the whole world.”
Thankfully, though I was caught off guard, God was not. Our God was not taken by surprise when 2020 started to fall apart for the whole world. We were all in a flurry of confusion. Whether it was lack of loo roll in the supermarket, length of queues at the chemist, or church doors closing with only some Zoom novices to make things happen, we were thrown from our place of comfort. Shaken out of our familiarity. But God, who has seen the beginning from the end, remained where He always is, on His throne of grace and sovereignty.
So, although I, and maybe all of us, enter this New Year with a sense of trepidation, we do not have to worry. God literally has the whole world in His hands and if we trust Him no matter what comes, no matter what we face, no matter what the shops run out of, then we will get through it.
God is still in control.
There is no shortage of God’s presence.
God is not distant.
God is not on mute.
Maybe 2020 was a sign God was holding up to us.
JOIN ME! Yes, it’s strange; yes it’s different, but join in with what I am doing.
May we all join Him in what He is doing in 2021.
Annmarie Miles is originally from Tallaght and now lives in her husband Richard’s homeland, Wales. As well as VOX articles, she writes short stories, and is working on a book about her journey with food, weight gain, weight loss and God. Visit her blog at www.auntyamo.com. On Twitter she is @amowriting.
