Going Forward

Which way?

 

I don’t want to go back

I want to go forward.

 

One year ago I saw the blessings of a lockdown. Everyone had to be still. There was no FOMO (fear of missing out). We all slowed down. We all had to face the people in our bubbles and the health of those relationships. We had to face ourselves and confront our fears.

 

Yet I loved it. I loved the slower pace. I loved the ease of Sabbath. I loved my quiet time with God. I loved my family in ways I hadn’t been able to do for quite some time.

 

Then the world slowly started a new normal and our pivots got harder and more exhausting. And they seemed to be happening frequently.

 

Now I’m one month away from maximum immunity. It’s spring. People are getting out more. Things are still tense - especially race relations but it feels like we are “headed back to normal.”

 

And that thrills and scares me at the same time.

 

For one thing...I don’t think we are going back to normal. You don’t go through a monumental event like a Pandemic without being changed. While it’s too early to know what those changes will look like, its safe to say we can unsee or unfeel what we’ve experienced. We will be different.

 

And another thing… I don’t want to. And I’m realizing now that I don’t have to. I want to slow down and enjoy life. I want to treasure my Sabbath. I need to have my quiet time with God. I want every ounce of quality family time I can get.

 

And I know I can have it. But it won’t be easy. I’ll have to be intentional. 

 

I feel like I could’ve clicked my heels together like Dorothy and done this all along but it wasn’t until I truly discovered loving God and others with all my mind, heart, strength and soul without the other noise of the world that I realized the worth of that. 

 

No longer do I have FOMO of what’s going on in the world. Now I have FOMO of what I’m missing in those still quiet moments.

 

It’s this realization that I’ll treasure forever as a blessing from this Pandemic.

 

Deuteronomy 6:4-7

New King James Version

4 “Hear, O Israel: [a]The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

 

6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.