Every year since 1976, Lake Superior State University (LSSU) in Michigan posts their annual list of banned words or phrases from each year as voted on by nominations from around the world. Here’s the press release for last year: (LSSU 2020 banned words) I wholeheartedly agree with about 8/10 of these submissions. What do you think?
(Side note: it was fun to check out the year of my graduation [1998 if you’re interested]) I remember being super annoyed by “my bad” as a way of expressing that something was your fault.
Still hate it.
This annual list got me thinking about 2021 and what words or phrases will be characteristic of this year. Now, at least half of the suggested words and phrases from 2020 were from ‘The Rona’ so good luck predicting what 2021 holds for us.
So, when I was asked to prepare a church-wide study for 2021 based on the lives of Moses and Joshua in the Old Testament, I simply started reading the narrative in Exodus 1 looking for a word or phrase to base the study on.
It wasn’t long before one word quickly emerged: COURAGE!
It started with the Hebrew midwives who defied Pharaoh and should have been killed for their defiance, then it extended to Moses’ mother and sister, followed by Moses himself before God intervenes in the story to call Moses to lead Israel out of slavery to freedom exactly 430 years of captivity.
But I don’t want to ruin the whole story for you.
Quite simply, Israel was in big trouble and the only way for them to be saved was through courageous faith in God that He would miraculously intervene! Of course America isn’t there yet and people groups in our country are not currently enslaved (despite what the media would like you to believe) like what is going on in many countries around the world.
But the way things are going is definitely concerning, unsettling, and a little bit intriguing (at least to me).
As in, “God, I’m excited for how you are going to bring about your kingdom!”
Despite how 2020 was for you and what you think about 2021, I want to invite you to join us this month for an exciting study on the lives of Moses and Joshua.