The Undoing of Spring 2020

This was me, three weeks ago, sitting in the school pick up line with an immunity boosting tea in hand, enjoying what would be some of my last few moments of “normal” for an “unforeseeable” amount of time.

I knew the storm was coming, I could sense a chill in my bone,  but the magnitude and force at which it would strike was lost to me.  

Who could fathom the world around them, in all its power and structure, crumbling in a day’s time?  No more school or entertainment, no more travel or adventure, no more nights out on the town or family gatherings, no more church or sports, no more wandering a store for fun or meeting with a friend.  No more handshakes, no more hugs.

 It was, and suddenly, it was not.  

This whole ordeal has left my mind playing a game of constant catch-up as I’ve watched, sometimes in horror, as this invisible enemy has settled in among us shattering what I thought was seemingly unshakable. 

Like many of you, I have read countless articles filled with facts and opinions, some full of hope and others gloom that seem to ebb and flow by the minute.   One particular phrase I read struck a cord so deep within me that it's been on repeat, running through my mind at an increasing pace. 

“It’s as though we are waking from a dream….” 

A dream….. Is that now how I would describe my life before all this happened?  Did it really take something of this magnitude to bring fresh perspective, opening my eyes to all that I truly had?   In our fast paced world of achievement and hedonism was I actually missing the joy that was my life?

This process of slowly waking up to a new reality has been difficult.  

I know there is good in all of this.  I know this too shall pass.  I know that God is going to take what was intended for evil and will turn it into good.  We are already seeing evidence of this, even among the grief and fear.  Even though we are people in isolation there may never be a season in history we have been more united.

This inconvenience that we are living through reminds us all that we are human.  That despite where we live, what we look like, what we value, or how we act, we are far more similar than we care to admit.  We all hurt, we all struggle, we all have the capacity to love, the ability to fail, the value to thrive.  We are not invincible nor are we immortal. 

It’s times like these that make us truly face our humanness - in all that it is, beautiful yet broken.  It’s moments like these that force us to evaluate this one life we have been given causing us to ask hard and heavy questions that we have stuffed down for far too long.  It should cause us to stop looking in and start looking out.  Maybe even start looking up?

If you know me, it’s no secret I follow Jesus.  I’ll admit, it’s easy in the good times to feel self sufficient, almost as though He is a bonus but not a necessity to my life.   But, it’s in the difficult times that I’m reminded that is not the case and my need for Him is great.  He’s constant.  He’s unshakable.  He’s faithful.  He’s peace.  He’s joy.  He’s patient.  He is mine, and He can be yours too.  

Let the interruption of this uncertain and uncomfortable season of your life be the gift of re-entering.  In a lot of ways it’s a starting again of sorts, a second chance.  So much has been taken out of our lives right now, almost wiped clean, that when that glorious time of re-entry comes, we will get the unique opportunity to re-evaluate what goes back into our life.

Consider it a rebuilding of sorts. 

And can I urge you, not in a know-it-all sort of way, but from a place of genuine care that perhaps if Jesus wasn’t a part of your before, that your might consider putting Him into your life this time around?  In doing so, this second part of your story will be more beautiful and full of purpose than you can possibly imagine.

Jesus might be your greatest gift in all of this. 

Maybe this isn’t our undoing after all, but a second chance at this thing we call life?

     “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."  
                                                                                      -Matthew 11:28