After several years of dealing with the COVID pandemic, with tremendous life changes that have affected almost everyone on the planet, we are finally realizing that we will all experience a new kind of normal – a new kind of life. Our children and grandchildren didn’t have a graduation experience several years ago and for the first time, possibly ever, university classes were suspended or held virtually online.
There were fewer face to face interactions. Most assessments have shown that social relationships have suffered and our younger generations have not kept pace with the learning experience that they had when they were in regular school environments.
Probably the largest area of change is the fact that almost all companies have embraced the concept 0f “work from home.” We have become used to “reporting” to work in our pj’s, or only dressing the top half of our bodies because that’s all that can be seen on a video teleconference call. People can walk their dogs, go shopping or do other personal errands during what is traditionally the middle of the corporate work day. But now, things are changing. People are being called back into the office and there are huge numbers of people who would rather quite their jobs than return to work life as it used to be.
In all honesty, I have worked from home for almost 23 years and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Sure, I visited the offices of clients I served, but I didn’t need a place to go outside our home to validate that I had a successful company. Several of my friends, nonetheless, found it difficult, if not impossible, to work from home. They missed the personal interaction that comes from being in community with like-minded people.
But I have a problem understanding people who drop out of the workforce because they don’t want to go back to an office. In fact, statistics show that many folks have stopped looking for work altogether and eventually, this sort of behavior will catch up with them, unless they are independently wealthy. Several years ago, it was determined that with the number of job changes that people make, the average person would have to add as much as seven years to their work life to make up for the times that they were out of work. That will bring the average retirement age to 72!
We also know that the average American has gone through almost 30% of their retirement savings to survive the last several years with the impact of job loss coupled with periods of high inflation. It will be difficult to recover from these kinds of losses for folks who are already in middle age or older.
You might thing that the title of this post suggests that we are in a place that we can’t recover from. In fact, many Americans have already given up. But nothing is impossible with God. Faith and hope are important ingredients to have when faced with the crises that our country faces. But I’m referencing another “end” that is near. In another 48 hours or so, 2022 will be complete and enter into history – and we get a “do over.”
That’s right. We get a clean slate on January 1st and our attitude is what will determine the success or failure of 2023. I’m excited about that. And the same thing is true when you put your trust in God. The old ways are gone and each of us receives a pass for our past behaviors – as long as we confess our sins.
Our verse for tonight comes from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. He, the one who prophesied about the coming of Jesus years before His birth, tells us the words of God in Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
In other words, God will handle it all for us. He is about to do a new thing in 2023 and we are invited along to witness it. My encouragement this evening is that God wants us to succeed by choosing joy. My prayer is that we will put our trust in the Lord and that we will experience peace, love, prosperity, encouragement and blessings in the New Year. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…