Happy New 2021!

Happy New Year Everybody! Welcome to 2021: A year of recovery, reestablishment, and renewal by God's grace. 2020 was a shock to all of our systems, but now it's time to get back up, and embrace a new beginning. If you hadn't recovered yet from the blows of 2020, the new year is a perfect time to do so.

As everybody plans for the year ahead, you also, can begin to plan. What are the goals and dreams that got deferred or knocked aside by the pandemic? Maybe you can start with those. What are the new initiatives or targets ushered in by the new normal because of the pandemic? Maybe you can move on to those. And what are the long term plans that really, were not even affected by the pandemic? You can round up your thinking with these.

I like the way the pandemic, for all its negative impact, really forced people (and organisations) to think, plan, and act differently. In a way, you could say that we were all forced to innovate, stagnate, or die - and many people/organisations did die. For them, I'd like us to take a moment of silent prayer for the souls that were lost, and the dreams that got truncated.

Heavenly father, we ask that every life that has been unexpectedly ended by this pandemic, you receive into your loving arms; and all the suffering that has been caused, both in health and lifestyles (lost jobs & businesses), you relieve in Jesus' Name. Amen.

That said, the New Year should be a time of joy! Not sadness. So as we look ahead into our various 2021s, I want you to think about all the possibilities for happiness that exist. The COVID vaccines on the horizon; The birthdays still to come; The holidays yet unplanned; and the pleasant surprises we haven't even gotten wind of yet!

All these wonderful things still await us in the rest of this year. So let's welcome them in with happy, hopeful smiles. Because the best is yet to come. :)