2020 Vision…

2020… It is ironic to me that the number often associated with perfect sight is 2020 – given how unclear everything seems this year. As a kid I remember feeling so proud when the nurse announced that I had 2020 vision after a screening I had done in the elementary school gym. My vision was PERFECT!⁣⁣

2020 couldn’t be more imperfect or unclear. We have a virus that is killing people with no end in sight. The leadership of our nation is being disputed and argued over. The economy is a mess, with one of the highest unemployment rates we have ever faced as a nation… Families can’t be near each other. Friends are turning into enemies over politics and race. It is hard to see a future when the present is so clouded. ⁣⁣

I wonder though, is our vision really clouded, or is 2020 actually bringing things into focus, like glasses do?

⁣⁣During this season of financial lack, separation from loved ones, and the racism and hatred that we see in the world, I have had to force myself to take a good hard look at everything up close and personal. When I look out into the world and see things I don’t like, am I just complaining about it and tossing up my hands? Or am I looking at myself with 2020 vision? Am I letting all the ugliness in myself be revealed to myself so that I can make a permanent change in ME, which will radiate out to the world? Because that’s the thing about seeing things perfectly – you don’t just get to see the beautiful parts, you see the trash piles too… And man… There was a lot of trash in my ideologies, in my priorities, in the way that I see and interact with myself… There was a whole lot of trash…⁣⁣

At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what is going on in the world at large if we as individuals are covering up trash heaps in our character. Perhaps all this alone time we have had, and all the gunk that is being pulled out of America’s closet isn’t a result of bad vision – maybe it is a sign that we are finally seeing things perfectly, exactly how they are, ugliness and all, so we can finally make the changes necessary to live in a truly beautiful world.⁣