Unpopular Opinion, I Am Grateful For 2020

​So, as I was jogging this morning, I was thinking about what 2020 means to me and I'll tell you, I think I'm grateful for it. Hear me out.
 
Do not get me wrong, I do not like wearing a mask or being quarantined. 2020 has changed our lives dramatically, whether we cannot go to work, we cannot go to school, we cannot see our friends or our family. But I think this year has given us unique opportunities and forced us to kind of tackle things a different way.
 
Two things that 2020 has forced us to do:
 
#1 - 2020 has forced us to slow down.

In Exodus, God tells us to be still. God wants us to be still at times so we could hear him. Be still so we can learn from him. It has forced us to slow down in a way we have never imagined. Gone are the times of going to movies, going to restaurants all the time, concerts, whatever those distractions we are used to. Our society has been distracting us from our families, from our friends and from God. They are kind of gone. I mean, you can still go to a restaurant, kind of, but it certainly has spurred our desire to go do that. 2020 has forced us to be still and to slow down.
 
#2 -  It has also forced us to be around our family more, quite frankly.

I am home all the time now. I have two teenage daughters and they are going to school from home. My wife goes to work. She is a school principal and must be there but she is home a lot more as well. 2020 has forced me to be around my family more now, which brings a whole slew of blessings with it. Maybe it has done the same with you.
 
Two opportunities that 2020 has brought:
 
#1 -  2020 has given us the opportunity to focus more on God.

Since we are home more now, we have had plenty of time to “be still”. So we have had the opportunity to read the Bible more, to follow Christian social media more and to learn more from Bible plans. It has given us the opportunity to do all sorts of stuff that we weren't able to do before because you were so busy.
 
Take advantage of this opportunity to get closer to him.
 
#2 - 2020 has given us the opportunity to refocus our lives.
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So as we go into 2021, we all have the opportunity to learn from 2020 and refocus our lives going forward.
 
Think about how you want to refocus. I, for one, do not necessarily want things to go back to normal. Going back to normal to me means the busyness and the chaos we were dealing with. Refocusing means less time watching TV, less time going to movies, less time going restaurants, less time even to travel to work and back.
 
It means more time with my family, my friends and with God. It’s given us an opportunity to refocus our lives and not go back to the way they were.
 
So think about these things, especially as we turn the page on another year. Think about how you can refocus your life and refocus your faith on God.