2020–what a year. While most on this list are not brand new, we were reminded of them all in the past 365 days. 20 lessons from the hardest year of many people’s lives. 20 important lessons, some reminders of what is truly important, a large dash of hope, many sad truths. 2020–what a year.

1. People are desperate for hope. Humanity is broken, and all the world looked towards for hope was taken away this year. Pro sports, financial stability, the summer vacation we look forward to, new entertainment, late night partying–all gone for at least a period of time. Come Christmas, our local tree stand sold 6x his normal amount of trees, our local Hobby Lobby sold every single wreath they had, Target was cleared of decorations—people were desperately looking for hope during the holidays, just as they’ve been looking all year. People need hope.

2. Many have a very strange view of survival. Like, toilet paper? Really? What about shelf stable whole foods, herbs and supplements, water filters? We don’t care about those things? I mean, as long as your booty is clean, nothing else matter, I guess.

3. Big time entertainment is much less important than we thought. Hollywood stopped making movies for awhile. No new TV shows are coming out. Pro sports seasons were postponed or cancelled. At first, it was disappointing. And then we all survived–even thrived–as we filled our time with things other than spoon fed entertainment.

4. Teachers are ridiculously underappreciated. Everyone has appreciated medical workers and first responders through this, but as a mom, my real heroes are the teachers. My own mom is a teacher and one of the best I ever had, and the demands placed on teachers this year have been ridiculous and many times almost impossible. And still, they fight for and love on your kids. As many families began distance learning, they realized just how difficult teaching really is. Teachers are phenomenal.

5. It’s so wonderful to be close to family. When flights are cancelled, there’s checkpoints crossing state lines, and international travel is banned, it’s hard to see your family. Thankfully, many travel restrictions have since been lifted, but my in-laws, who live in Indonesia, have had a wild time coming back to the US to meet their three new grandbabies. Being geographically close to family is such a blessing.

6. The immune system is wildly misunderstood. When the whole covid thing began, we would go to the grocery store and be shocked at what was sold out. Hamburger helper, brownie mix, instant noodles, harsh disinfectants, all gone. But always, the produce section was fully stocked. Our immune systems become stronger as they are stimulated. However, we are told to kill every single germ out there and people have been doing it since March—if a person’s immune system hasn’t seen a germ in months, how weak might it have become?

7. Safety is not first. If you’re alive but you’ve given up everything that brings you joy for the sake of safety, you’re not living.

8. It’s good to slow down. Remember in March when everything shut down and kids were home from school and everyone just had to stop, take a deep breath, and be slow? With everything moving online, it picked back up, but we got a taste of the slow life, and we liked it.

9. The government is not looking out for the little guy. Look at the regulations being put it place–it doesn’t matter if the everyday small business owner loses their income, their house, their livelihood, the business they grew their whole lives. Sorry, it’s just collateral damage, for the greater good. Look at the last stimulus bill that was passed–$600 to some Americans, and the rest going mostly to other countries and big corporations. If the government cared about the little guy, they’d let people assume their own risks.

10. Dissenting opinions will be cancelled. Once upon a time, people had different opinions and it was totally fine, because it was just a point of view. People were entitled to their opinions. These days if you don’t agree with mainstream state of mind? Sorry, you’re cancelled. They will wreck your reputation, smear you on social media, threaten you—dissenting opinions (and facts) are no longer tolerated or viewed as just a difference in opinion, they are viewed as hateful and evil and people are happy to ruin you for it.

11. Many people don’t know how to think for themselves. They’re spoon fed “the facts” on the evening news or social media or a podcast and experts said it so it must be true. We cannot question the experts. We cannot question the government, or the media, or the activists, or the leaders. On the other side, some are quick to believe every alternative theory out there without doing their own research or checking credibility and sources. And then there’s confirmation bias, and we can find anything online to back up our viewpoint. Many, many people are using their critical thinking skills, but far more are happy to believe whatever they’re told.

12. Being outside is amazing. Fresh air, sunshine, space, vitamin D—we need it desperately. Everybody is a little happier to be outside these days.

13. Technology can stand in place of face to face relationships. Not sufficiently, but it can. People held holidays and classes and meetings over Zoom and it was a fine stand in. In some instances, it works great! We need face to face relationships and nothing can replace them, but there’s no denying the power of tech.

14. People are far too happy to give up their freedom to be safe. They’re willing to give up their freedom to travel, to work, go to school, visit family, assume their own risks, join their spouses for ultrasound appointments, go to their kids’ sports games…all in the name of safety. They’d rather be the safe, warm, fed lion locked in a cage than a wild lion with no guarantees, but free.

15. Our time on Earth is limited. This year many people dealt with unexpected deaths of loved ones due to covid, suicide, overdoses, etc. We all knew our time was limited, but we were certainly reminded this year. We’ve got to live to the fullest while we can.

16. Self sufficiency is growing ever-more important. We want to be reliant on the government to sustain us less and less these days. More people are going off grid, planting gardens, raising chickens, and learning how to live off their own resources.

17. The only authority we can trust completely is Jesus. Just as we don’t know what the government or anybody else in authority ultimately has in mind, neither do we know what God ultimately has planned. But we do know that God’s plan is perfect, and His plan is best. There’s no authority we can have full confidence in except that of Jesus.

18. The world can change extremely quickly. My son was born on a pretty normal day. When he was one day old, the WHO declared the pandemic. At a week old, the world shut down. It was shocking that within a couple weeks of his birth, the world was unrecognizable. We had no idea how quickly the world can change.

19. We literally have no idea what tomorrow will bring. In the back of our heads, we all knew this, but I don’t think most of us quite understood the gravity of it.

20. There is no hope in anything except Jesus. In all the fads this year, in all the places people went to find hope and joy and peace, in all the entertainment and the junk food and the Christmas decorations, people came up empty. They came up empty because instead of looking towards Jesus, they looked to a broken world that had nothing lasting to offer them. But those that looked to Jesus found what they were looking for. There is no hope in anything except Jesus, the only constant one in our lives.

It was quite a year, and we’re thankful we’ve moved on to the next one.

Here’s to 2021!