I recently saw a tweet that said, “what did we even talk about before the Corona Virus?” I don’t know about you, but it made me think about how much COVID-19 has infiltrated our lives.
Which surely, unless you’ve been living under a rock (to which, I then applaud you), you’ve been impacted by COVID-19. Maybe, like me, you’re under a shelter-in-place order, and this is what life looks like right now:
Maybe, like me, you’ve had some big plans canceled.
Maybe, like me, you’ve been told not to visit your loved ones.
Maybe, like me, you’re struggling with the looming ‘new normal’ once the dust settles.
Maybe, like me, your entire has been turned upside-down and hardly resembles your life 6 weeks ago.
Maybe, like me this is what you’re daydreaming of:
I’m just going to call it like it is, COVID-19 sucks. I’m sure you could find more colorful words to describe COVID-19, but at its very core, it SUCKS (with a capital S).
The truth is, no matter how good you are at handling change, no matter how good you are at processing emotions, or how resilient you are, this time is hard. Not a single person on the planet has dealt with this before. And it doesn’t matter your education level, the amount of money you have in the bank, your gender, your race, your religion, it’s affecting us all.
Personally, that reigns as some comfort for me. This idea that everyone has to wing it, begrudgingly so in some cases, but still everyone must wing it.
I think everyone could come up with a reason or clause as to why COVID-19 is specifically challenging for them. Me you ask? Well, one of the many is my upcoming attempt at securing a full-time job. Which to be fair, I wish I would have knocked on some wood six months ago when I told curious patrons that “I don’t have anything to worry about yet.”
I received a message from someone with a front seat to the game that is “Katelyn secures a job.” She told me that while we can’t always pick our circumstances, we can’t pick how things shake out, or how things look when the dust settles, we can ALWAYS choose our reaction.
So, she asked me how I was going to respond. If I was going to let the situation fuel my response or if I was going to face it as a curious challenge. The latter option tends to be my life approach, so I opted for the second one (big shock all around, I know). But this leads me to ask you, how are you going to respond when the dust settles?
(That was your queue to actually think about that question, just an FYI)
The truth of the matter is that everyone’s world right now is shaking. Its unruly, uncertain, distraught.
But uncertainty isn’t something new and it will never be depleted. To which, begs the response, much like COVID-19, that it sucks. And I agree, it does suck. But I believe that with great uncertainty comes the need for great faith. I believe that when we’re faced with uncertainty like this, it is simply a means of giving God the room to work.
What if these times of uncertainty, when every novelty and sense of comfort is taken, because God needs us to step back and reassess our priorities. Because He wants to say, “now let me show you what I can do,” we were just in the way.
What would it look like to completely let go and let God? What would it look like to put our independence aside and instead become completely dependent on Him?
Look at Hebrews 12:25-29,
“See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”
Hebrews 12:25-29
Side note, here is a little context: Hebrews (in the New Testament) takes place after the death and resurrection of Christ. We don’t know who wrote it for sure, but many people speculate that Paul wrote it based on the style. It was addressed to the Hebrews, meaning to both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jewish Christians). And the purpose was to encourage and to endure– much of the book speaks to Christians not abandoning their faith and enduring through trials. This specific set of verses speaks to the endurance theme. As in, the author is giving examples of what has happened in the past to believers who didn’t listen and endure.
“See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks” You know, I’ve found that God is always speaking, we just aren’t listening. So often in prayer or in life in general, our relationship with God turns into a monologue, rather than a dialogue. If ONLY we had the time to practice listening… oh wait, we do. I think C.S. Lewis puts it perfectly,
“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labor is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still, to remain awake.”
– C.S. Lewis
Did you catch that little part (sike, it’s not little, its the whole point) where the author says, “so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful.”
You got that right? Think about everything right now. Everything we’ve built, it’s all shakeable. And it’s becoming clear very quickly that our priorities have been all out of whack. The term ‘essential’ has taken on a whole new definition through all of this. And I beg of you, to translate it as unshakeable. Has your life been built on that which is unshakeable (hint: he tells us right there, its the kingdom of God)?
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: we don’t have to have it all together. We don’t have to have it all figured out, we don’t have to know what comes next, we don’t have to stress about the future, we don’t have to worry.
Why? Because we know the one who holds the future and spoiler alert, He has already won the battle. And He hasn’t (and won’t) leave our sides through it all. Remember, He is unshakeable.
So let me ask this, who or what are you going to turn to while everything is still shaking and unsettled?
If you need some reassurance, just remember this, (Psalm 94:18;22)
“When I thought my foot was slipping, your steadfast love Lord, held me up. (22) The Lord has become my stronghold, my God, the rock of my refuge.”
PSALM 94:18;22
And remember, it’s already written, He’s already won. Keep your eyes on Him, because His promises never fail.
We’ve got this, just hang in there. Hopefully, soon we can both get back to traveling!
Til then,
Katelyn
This was an awesome article! I have been struggling to put my thoughts together since leaving SAS this semester and you synthesized it all so thank you for writing this article.