Virtual Learning and the Lessons I learned in 2020:

Two recurring lessons from 2020 will carry over into 2021:

• Learn to live with disappointment – gratefully
• You have a lot left to learn, princess!

The trick has been to stay teachable, because I am seasoned citizen. And we know a lot! But 2020 taught me, no, I don’t know so much. So did painting!

Virtual learning in 2020 also taught me: it has been good to have lessons to learn even if some have been hard.  Covid-19  has killed almost two million people.

It is generally a more productive day when you learn something from life rather than try to teach it something. ~Robert Brault, 2019

That there have been so many lessons, however, underscored this: life’s lessons don’t just happen without a teacher or a syllabus.

2020 offered a series of labs about God: His presence, purpose and power.  Are we in a crucible of His care . . . or, lost in space, marooned on some alien planet trying to get home? Or, in the words of George Clooney, Is anyone out there?  (The Midnight Sky)

2020 was one weird classroom to Answer that Question!

Unfortunately for most of 2020, learning felt like we were in the most poorly designed open space classroom. With so much noise – so many experts, gurus, smarty-pants and disgruntled fellow students—it was hard to hear, harder to understand and hardest to trust there was a Teacher with a plan.

 Christ made Himself heard, though when I checked the text, listened more carefully, and was honest about where I was struggling in His class.  And I struggled before 2020 with doubt and unbelief!

2021 may be another weird virtual classroom.

The noise, confusion, and conflict of 2020 are right inside the classroom door of 2021 . . . but so is He
( Revelation 3:20)

Because the Lord is near, we have hope things will get better . . . when and how . . . well, who knows?  I am guessing based on last year’s classes, 2021’s virtual learning might be more interesting.

But  God welcomes questions – the only dumb one is the question we don’t as, right? (Jeremiah 33:3)

Getting ready for more Virtual Learning classes, this suggestion makes sense:

Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go. ~ Author Unknown

God willing, we will learn how to be better instruments of peace and hope to each other.  (The Prayer of Saint Francis)

Happy New Year, dear readers — here is the beloved prayer sung. Click and enjoy! Make Me an Instrument of Thy Peace.