This coming Sunday, November 22, 2020, will be the end of our “Follow Me” annual focus year.
As we end this year, we consider what it has taught us about discipleship. The orange and yellow toned “Follow Me” banner hung in our sanctuary since November, but many members only saw it for five months of November, December, January, February, and March. After that, the banner has been out of the line of the camera frame for our online services as we shifted from regular in-person services to all remote services to now in-person services with precautions in place. 
We have had quite a year of following Jesus, but I think the annual focus spoke something that we did not originally mean for it to speak. This annual focus was to be a time when we considered what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus, and in this focus we got an appreciation for what those first disciples must have felt. Those first disciples of Jesus followed a Master who wasn’t always the most predictable, but they saw that if they followed Him to the end, they found great meaning for their lives.
Likewise, we are still following Jesus through times that are less than predictable. As numbers of infections rise throughout the country and especially in the Mid West, we find ourselves wondering what this next year will bring. When we will have an Easter with an Easter Egg hunt and a potluck? When will we gather together and sing “Silent Night” unmasked while holding candles? It is hard to predict, but then again, we’re not called to predict – we are called to follow.
But even when we are not called to predict, we still have hopes. We are allowed to hope. We are allowed to express our hope, to pray our hope, and to even seek our hope. This coming year, our focus will be “Done by Hope,” and I am looking forward to following Jesus, our great hope, into this year as He continues to lead and we continue to follow Him.