Ceramic Hair – 2020’s Reflection

So yeah, things have improved for me, even moving at the speed of medicine. I’m not ungrateful, that would be selfish and wrong, and not just because it’s the “Canadian” thing to do, or be, depending on how you see our culture. Meeting Karen, and getting married thereafter, is the best thing I’ve ever chosen, after choosing the covenant path of following Jesus Christ being a Latter-Day Saint.

I’ve never had such direct reason to rejoice, before, and I have a long list of good things and people in my life, but let’s not get to caught up in that. We’re looking back. 2020 was – to put it mildly – a terrible year for millions of people. What does one fella amount to, then? Not much, so it would seem, but don’t buy that lie.

It was an individual who sold himself for selfish pride that caused more harm than anyone deserved. Fairness doesn’t happen now, but it will in time. For now, then, we have to deal with what we have. Individual is what matters, our choices and agency, and when we give it up for a momentary and temporary pleasure, we surrender our true strength.

Don’t think for a second you can find out who you are by satisfying urges and impulses, because they simply don’t last. Building relationships, society, culture, all takes time and effort. Those who give no effort do not receive the benefit of what comes of the investment. Yes, some will have it laid before them, but our lessons are tailored to our willingness to receive and pursue them.

One of the most valuable points of guidance I’ve received this year is “don’t give up on yourself”. Patience is most certainly the lesson, presently, and there are occasions we need time to see our energy bear fruit. Why sure, plant a seed and you’ll find that it needs some exertion on your part to produce anything that we value.

What we fail to appreciate, however, is the lesson that comes from the time spent nurturing the plant, and the result that our singular attention manifests in its duration. The flower, perchance, is beautiful and easily noticed. Did we gain any appreciation of the strengthening of our own soul that occurred along the way? Let’s take a moment to do so now, if we haven’t, yet.

2020 has engendered an increased narrowness of focus that is a result of necessity. Are we content with what we can do? What good can we create, or uplift? Which master are we serving now, and to whom will we bow? The world is indeed shrouded in darkness of all kinds, but the light of the good has not diminished – it does in fact marshal and match the striving of the adversary in all of his output.

If there is anything I have learned from 2020, it is that my judgement of what, when and how is easily said, imperfect, whereas the Lord Jesus Christ does indeed have everything in His hands. My continued trust in His timing results in the best use of my energy and limited resources. I know that He lives, and is our Savior, this I declare in his sacred name. Amen.

  • January 11, 2021