The world has opened up again and life is almost, at least in some areas, completely back to the normal we were used to. People can travel again, see family and friends and of course, get back to their busy daily routines. It’s wonderful, right?
Well, I don’t know.
As much as it’s great to finally experience community and connection again, to freely move about, I wonder whether we are missing out on something as we fall back to our old routines.
What We Learned In Lockdown
When COVID-19 swept across the globe it left devastation, loss and isolation in its wake. But it also resulted in a worldwide humbling and realisation that life is brief and it is fragile.
As we were forced to stay isolated in our homes and faced the fear of losing our loved ones every day, we stopped taking a lot of things for granted. Some people finally noticed how little they talked or connected with their immediate family, others finally realised they had been using work and life’s busyness to distract themselves from various personal issues.
For others, the lockdown allowed them to finally draw closer to God or actually start seeking Him.
When faced with the very real threat of death, people allowed themselves to wonder what comes after and ask themselves whether or not what they were chasing was really that important.
With these questions came answers that, for some, resulted in making some adjustments to the way they treated others, who they kept close and who they didn’t, how they went about work and lived life in general.
But now, as we slip further back into the way things were before the COVID-19 lockdown, I wonder if all of these lesson we learned have been forgotten.
Have We Forgotten What We Learnt?
Now that we can safely get back to our work-filled days and interact with people, are we forgetting some of the things we learned when we were in isolation?
Are we forgetting the importance of loving one another? (Matthew 22:36-40) Are we forgetting how short life is and how quickly it can end? (Psalm 39:4) Are we forgetting to slow down and actually live? Are we forgetting about the God who revealed Himself to us in the silence?
Or are we content to go back the way that it was before? Are we happy to go back to days filled with senseless activity? To walk over the people we are supposed to love?
Sadly, I believe that this is true for some. But it doesn’t have to be true for you.
A Red Sea Moment
Someone once reminded me that God only opened the Red Sea once. After Moses and the Israelites crossed over, it was closed and it has remained closed ever since. Now imagine there was an Israelite who hesitated to cross over and decided to wait until they felt more confident to walk across. They would have been left behind and the opportunity to cross over would never have come again.
For some of us, the time during lockdown was our Red Sea moment in that it afforded us the opportunity to be still, to change things in our lives both physically, spiritually and emotionally, to cross over into a new life.
But now that time has come and gone and there is no telling whether we will ever have a another chance to be as still as we were during lockdown.
Whilst we won’t be able to go back to such a time, and many wouldn’t want to, we can still go on with the lessons we learned in that time. Maybe you have been slipping back into old habits, activities and behaviour and have forgotten the new things you learned. But it’s not too late to remember them.
Let Us Remember
Let us not wait for another tragedy to hit to remember how short life is and realise what is really important. Let us not wait for death to think about where we go when all is said and done.
Let us remember what we learned during lockdown and let it encourage us to move forward differently. For our lives will be disrupted again when Jesus returns and our busy schedules, our pursuit of validation, all of it will mean nothing in the face of Him. And some will wonder why they spent their lives chasing the wind when they could have been chasing Him and His kingdom.
Let that person not be you.
Whilst there is still time remember the Lord your God (Ecclesiastes 12: 1-7) and seek those things that are above where He is (Colossians 3:1) because everything on the earth will, one day, fade away.
