Rebuilding Our Lives
Everything came skidding to a stop three months ago. We lost the ability to go out and do what we wanted to. We rearranged everything to have it centre from home - church, social interactions, school, and work. Some of us were bored and some of us were busier than ever. Our assumptions, emotions, mental health, and spiritual fortitude have been tested and challenged.
As we creep toward something that looks a little more like pre-pandemic life, how do we know how to rebuild the parts of our lives that are so different than they were before? How do we decide what we're going to do and not do, resume or leave behind forever?
Here's how I've been thinking about this.
Spiritual Life
Since my relationship with God isn't a piece of my life but the foundation and centre of my life, this one has to come first. I wrote this in first person and then in third person and then back again, and again... it was tough to know what voice to use so I left it in third but on almost every point I am using first person to ask these questions of myself as well!
What does your relationship with God look like right now? Have you picked up any habits or practices that have been making a positive impact to your discipleship? How can you protect those things in your calendar and strengthen these habits?
Think about what your bible-reading app streak looks like or the bible study that you've been working through daily or how your family has consistently been "attending" church together or the Connecting Point group that you engaged with online or the way that you've been able to pray for people and meet practical needs like never before.
What will it take for those kingdom-centred things to stay in first place as restrictions to our movements are easing?
Family Life
What have you learned about your closest relationships over the past few months? What areas have been shown to need some work? What beautiful things have come out of spending so much time together? How can you lean into those issues that have come to the surface and schedule your week to preserve the family time that you've come to love?
Work Life
Think about the time you spend at work and what it has meant to work from home or go into work during a pandemic. How has God used you in this environment? What have you realized about your strengths and weaknesses as you serve your employer? How has gratitude for a steady job increased? Or, how has your ability to trust God to be your provider increased? How will these insights help you live out Colossians 3:23 - "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men..."?
This crisis has an obvious silver-lining; we have the chance to rebuild our lives with new intention. We have an unlimited resource of wisdom to help us with this (James 1:5-6) and the Holy Spirit who is able to use every circumstance to shape us into the image of Christ and produce the fruit of the Spirit in us. (Galatians 5:22-23)
Take these questions with you on the next walk you take, the next time you open your prayer journal or the next time you sit quietly with the scriptures. Who knows what the next six months, year or decade might look like when a global pandemic gives you the catalyst you needed to allow the Lord to shape your life in new ways.
Walking with you,
Pastor Tracy
