"Look Both ways before you go!!"

The usual parental instruction before children cross a street. And good, life-saving instruction it is. In a way, it's a lesson we get to review every year. Of course, instead of looking side-to-side, the annual version is looking at what's in front of and behind us.
There was much in 2020 that most Americans would like to forget. But that doesn't make them or their effects go away. Christians might point to Philippians 3: 13, that tells us we should be "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead", and use that to say the past doesn't matter. But that partial understanding would have to ignore much in the Bible, including a previous verse (8) which says, “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”. Taken together, Paul is making the point that accomplishments and events are not important compared with knowing Christ and trusting in His righteousness alone for salvation (Eph 2: 8-9). Further, the Greek word used in verse 13 means “refusing to focus on.”
So Philippians tells us not to "live in the past". This is distinctly different from a memory wipe. This is because the instruction of the passage is to focus on the present AND the future, rather than only the past. It is foolishness to forget or be shamed out of learning our real national history, because we lose any lessons, warnings or satisfaction from the actions in the past. This same principle is important on a personal level.
I'm known to recommend something to my son and follow it with "Ask me how I know." He's stopped asking, because he knows it means that I learned by trying the wrong way. (I like to tell him anyway.) God frequently reminded the Israelites of what He had done and told them to remember Him in physical markers (e.g. rocks, circumcision, the Temple) and with special celebrations (e.g. Passover). He said many times that He "brought you out of slavery." God still is bringing us out of slavery, and we should remember what He's done in the lives of Christians through Jesus. Specific victories are important to remember, so we can confidently face future challenges.
We are to be encouraged in looking back. But just so there's balance and we don't start thinking we're wonderful without God, He tells us we should "never forget how you aroused the anger of the Lord your God" (DT 9:7) and reminds us how needy we were before Jesus saved us (Eph 2: 11+).
So, it's important that we should not be wallowing in arrogance or guilt at the past because it dismisses God's acts and disqualifies us from acting as His people in the world. Focussing in the past can lead us not to trust God for the future. As we look at some alarming bullying, cheating and lying on a national level and a disgustingly one-sided media, it's easy to grow fearful. Naturally, there are Christianophobes, because Jesus shows sinners the evil of such behavior.
But in looking back at God's actions in the world, we are also to look ahead to plan responses as God's people. People who don't do as the Enemy does, but do as ambassadors of the Almighty Creator, focussing on His love. Love of God compels Christians to trust God & do what they can to defeat evil, because that's what honors God and his principles. Loving motives give a clear statement of the wrongness & consequences of sin. This is not what the sinful call love, they'd like a some alleged "niceness" that allows sinners to sin without objecting to it. But, it's not "nice" to let people run to Hell without saying or doing a thing.
The best way to begin any year, but especially one of such extraordinary uncertainty, is with confidence in God Then, we can look back with gratitude to God and walk boldly into a new year without fear. Pastor Geoff