That’s what I wrote one year ago. It was a new thing all right! We’ve never had such a year in this country, at least not recently. Someone wrote during 2020, “Personally, I’m ready for some precedented times. I’m tired of unprecedented times!”

Maybe we need the promise of Jeremiah 29, a promise given to exiles who were experiencing hard times, a promise that required a response:

This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29.10 – 13, NIV)

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked 
or stand in the way that sinners take 
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, 
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, 
which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither
— whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1.1 – 3, NIV)