Where the heck are we right now? What is going on?
I feel a little lost in all the Coronavirus updates and state mandated restrictions and empty grocery shelves. It’s all so disorienting.
How are you?
Since you can’t be student, boss, employee, non-teacher, hostess, room-parent, coach… how are you?
It’s weird and slow.
I know. I feel it too. Right now, I want to sit next to you (virtually) and offer you a compass in the chaos.
Because I’ve been here before.
From 2016-2019, we were swirling in a medical mess and I felt lost in a sort of wilderness. Just like you now, I wasn’t able to be all the things I’d signed up for like coach, room mom, hostess, tennis player, volunteer, etc.
My calendar was wiped clean of every layer of identity I’d wrapped myself up in. They were all taken without asking my permission.
As you read this; COVID-19 has wiped your calendar clean. And you didn’t get a say. We’re back to basics with no clear path of what lies ahead. So, what next?
First, let’s get our bearings. Friends, we are IN the wilderness.
And, I can tell you from experience and from reading lots of scripture, the wilderness is where God does His thing.
This is where He works.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert. – Isaiah 43:19
Rachel Held Evans wrote “…some of Scripture’s most momentous events occur not at the start of a journey, nor at the destination, but in between, in the wilderness.” Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water and Loving the Bible Again
We are IN BETWEEN right now.
And God is in it with us offering “a way.” In all this uncertainty and pandemonium, why not, WHY NOT invite God into it and ask for direction.
How does this work in real life, like right now? Well, if you were lost in the literal wilderness; you would keep your eyes open for signs to point you in the right direction. Same applies to you and God in the metaphorical wilderness. Really.
Here are a few “signs” in the wilderness to point you in the right direction: Read the Jesus Calling Devotional, sign up for a reading plan on the Holy Bible App, follow Aussie Dave or Priscilla Shirer or Bianca Olthoff or Bishop Jakes on Instagram, listen to 95.1 Shine-FM, look up She Reads Truth and join the community, tune in to mass on Church of the Nativity’s website.
We’re feeling a little lost right now but we have a God who loves to show up IN the wilderness in remarkable ways. He’s full of promise and hope and relief.
Point the compass His way, ask Him for help and TAKE NOTES! {You might not be able to see God in the moment but being able to look back at what you asked for can be a powerful way to see He was working all along.}
Just yesterday, I was journaling about my worry with the news of even more closings and my anxiety over my daily routine being swallowed up with the needs of all the kids home now. The “Jesus Calling “reading for March 18 was from Matthew.
“Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself.” – Matt 6:34
I’ve seen it before. I know I’ll see it again and again. You might be lost but you are not alone.
Let God be your compass in the chaos.
