Over the next few weeks it looks as if things are slowly returning to this word we like to use ‘normal’. I have used normal a lot during quarantine; when will church go back to normal? When can seeing my friends go back to normal? Or even as simple as when can walking down the street go back to normal?
I am not sure why I want to go back to normal? To me it means that I just wanted to spend the last few months as if there was a pause button on my relationship with God, friends and colleagues. It means I was happy to just coast along and just wait for this all to blow over. Going back to normal also means that there wasn’t any growth. I never want to be someone who didn’t grow in character, faith or person for 5 months.
I believe my attitude towards the start of lockdown was just this. I didn’t want to accept the reality of this pandemic and that it was going effectively put all of our lives on hold. But as it says in Hebrews 10:23 ‘Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful’ Remaining unswerving is to become steady or constant. Being steady or constant in hope is what we are called to as Christians. Christ gives us a hope and future and It is promised by God as Karin spoke about last week in her blog (check it out!)
‘Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful’
Hebrews 10:23
When I think about what I have learned in lockdown it is question that is hard to answer. It feels like time has gone so fast and I am constantly asking myself where I have improved or where have I learnt something new in this time.
I think the easiest thing to say I learnt was how to play the guitar. When I started to get bored in lock-down I thought the best thing to do was to learn a new skill or something that would occupy a large amount of time; playing guitar was an answer to that. It allowed me to spend not only just time learning a new skill to play songs but also allowed me to spend time with God learning worship songs and getting closer to him.
I think that what I also learnt during lockdown were not just skills but also lessons and behaviours for once we get out of lockdown. I think the main thing is I have learnt to appreciate the blessings I have. A stable job, a roof over my head and food on my table is a blessing from God during this time. I have been working at a community larder and discovered that these things are not available to everyone.
I have to thank God for his provision over this time. I think I have also learned about how important friendship and relationship with other Christians during this time is. God has worked miracles in this time and surrounded me with the right people to support me and I have to thank God for this.
By putting the right people around me I have learned how precious fellowship with other Christians is. The list of lessons I have learned from spending time with them alone is too long for this blog. But I think the greatest thing I have learned during this time is patience with myself and with others.
This time has had everyone on high alert and times have been scary. But being patient with the situation we are in is absolutely key. Resting on the idea that no matter what we see in the world God has a plan. His plan remained before quarantine, during and will remain after. So being patient and knowing that our current situation doesn’t affect the God we trust in has been key!
God Bless,
Joe