The world is truly reeling under the effects of this pandemic. Many people are suffering and families have lost loved ones. Our day-to-day lives have been uprooted and it feels like fear and anxiety are ramping up in the face of so many uncertainties. How long will this last? What does this mean for the world moving forward?
As we hunker down and self-quarantine, there is a great temptation in front of us. A temptation to simply ignore the situation and pass the time, to disengage and just entertain. There’s a chance the screen time on your IPhone has gone up exorbitant amounts and you may be asking yourself, what’s the latest show to binge on Netflix? While it’s not wrong to watch a show once in a while, I believe that the Lord is giving us an invitation to come back to the heart of worship, an invitation to greater intimacy. So much of our normal life has been disrupted. Everything- every comfort we cling to in our day-to-day lives is getting stripped away. Sports, trips, events, schools, ministries, and even just the usual freedom of going to the store and being able to buy toilet paper when we need it are all cancelled for the un-foreseeable future. Where does that leave us? When all the busyness is stripped away, what do we have left? It feels strange and foreign but I can’t help but feel thankful, like God is using this, to awaken us back to our first love. We have time now more than ever to enter into deeper relationship.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
”
We must have faith in the sovereignty and goodness of our Lord. Faith, that even in the midst of a horrible pandemic, He will work something good out of this time. We are in an unprecedented season where we have been forced to slow down. In the presence of our enemies, in the presence of the chaos of a global pandemic, He prepares a table for us. At that table, is the provision for anything we could ever need. At that table is the provision of grace, peace and rest. At that table is relationship. Will you accept this invitation to the table? In his kindness he has pulled us out of our busyness and is beckoning us into the rhythm of grace, as He makes us lie down in green pastures. Where distraction and striving has reigned, may Jesus reign. The Lord is taking us back to the beginning. Let’s take this chance to be still and know that He is God. Let’s use this time to take a seat at the table. When all is stripped away, what remains? May we seek the peace and presence of God in this time as we come back to the heart of worship.
It goes without saying that as the Body of Christ- we should have a response to this crisis. As you come back to the heart of worship- ask the Lord, what should your response be? Be it intercession, picking up groceries for a neighbor, calling someone who may be lonely or donating to a food bank. We should show up in a tangible way to demonstrate the love of Jesus during this time of suffering!