“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Hebrews 10:23-25 NIV
The last several months have been extraordinarily challenging. Not just for me, but for the entire planet. We have been walking through something entirely new…a different kind of world war. However, this time we’re all in the same side against an invisible enemy.
As a nurse, the experience has been both fascinating and deeply frustrating. I stepped away from direct patient care a few years ago and began working in the administrative side of nursing.
The bright side is that living under quarantine didn’t dramatically upset my daily routine, as I already worked from home. The frustration has been in not standing on the front lines with so many of my peers helping care for people in need.
Still, I’ve faced a plethora of health challenges in the midst of the pandemic, which have nothing to do with that blasted virus. How blessed I’ve been to be able to work in spite of those challenges. The path may not often look the way I picture it in my mind, but as long as I’m moving towards the light of Christ, I know the path will take me home.
Something else I’ve been blessed with during this lockdown is a significant deepening of my personal faith. I’ve gained a great deal of peace. I’ve learned a lot about how my chosen mindset dictates my worldly experience.
We’ve all had to come to terms with the reality that we have no real control over the worldly circumstances that come our way. We’ve had to learn that as an entire human civilization. It’s a message that has blanketed virtually every corner of the known world.
We’ve also learned that we need human connection and fellowship a great deal more than any of us understood. You can see this by the sheer volume of memes on the matter flooding social media. One of my favorites said, “I’m starting to miss people I don’t even like!”
Make no mistake, the enemy is the one working hard to use this situation against us. He wants us isolated, afraid, frustrated, tired, beat down, and hopeless. But the truth is, when we know what awaits us at the end of our journey, we must acknowledge that we truly have nothing to fear from this world.
In a recent sermon, our pastor talked of an apostle who was imprisoned and scheduled to be executed for being a follower of Christ the next morning. He was so at peace, living with an eternal mindset, that even the imminence of his death did not weigh him down.
Scripture tells us that, when an angel of the Lord came to liberate him, he had to be awoken from a deep sleep. In what was to be his final night on earth, shackled and guarded, he chose to take off his shoes and go to sleep.
How many of us would manage to remain so calm in the midst of such a storm? He didn’t know where his worldly path would lead, but he was so certain about the light waiting beyond this life, his peace was secure.
We are given many blessings intended to help us in our time of need, especially the people in our lives. We just have to see them for what they are, and accept the help and love God sends our way in whatever form it comes.
We must worry less about the choices others will make, including how we might be impacted by them, and operate off the choices we make for ourselves. It’s the only aspect of life we can actually control.
God is always waiting to give us guidance through wisdom, but He can’t force us to seek it out, nor will He force us to accept it. Look around your life and see the ways you’re choosing isolation over fellowship, fear over faith, darkness over light. Then, begin to choose differently.
Love the Hand of God 