February 19, 2021

I feel rusty…I haven’t been here for awhile and I’ve missed this space. I’ve missed sharing my heart with you.

hello again

I’ve spent the past year struggling to understand the new world, this angry, anti-everything Covid-era reality.

Maybe you have Covid fatigue. Can we talk about it? I recently read a story of a man who had become blind as a teenager and in his 40’s had life-changing surgery that restored his sight. Good news story, right?! Happy days…and yet he struggled mentally and emotionally because although he was thrilled that he could see again, he had a hard time reconciling what he looked like as a teenager with the person staring back at him in the mirror as a 40 year-old. He had obviously aged, friends and family had also aged, and places he used to know looked very different.

I feel a bit like that guy. It feels like I closed my eyes one night, had a good sleep but when I woke up the world was a different place and I had changed.

So here’s the struggle…I had my “Christian response to life” all figured out before, but everything changed.

I call myself a Christian. A Christ-follower. Someone who follows the way of Christ. I don’t call myself worldly. A world-follower. A follower of the ways of the world. And yet I’ve been sucked into blindly following the world’s narrative about Covid.

What’s the alternative? Is there a different way to think about the pandemic? 1000 times YES!

1 Peter 3:10-12 was my devotional reading the other day and I was floored at how simple the alternative is. How simple Christ’s way is compared to the world’s way. The verses say:

“For whoever desires to love life

and see good days,

let him keep his tongue from evil

and his lips from speaking deceit;

let him turn away from evil and do good;

let him seek peace and pursue it.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

and his ears are open to their prayer.”

The beauty of it, is that no matter which side of the fence we are on regarding restrictions, masks or vaccinations, we can be unified in a Godly response to Covid.

keep my tongue from evil…

I guess the best way to describe what this means is to turn to Luke 6:45 which says “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

As Christians we are brimming with hope! Life giving, eternity promising HOPE! Let’s fill our hearts with the good stored up in the word of God. Read it. Absorb it. Believe it. Live it. Share it.

The Christ-alternative then: is to allow the word of God to form my narrative and chart my response by filling my head and heart with all the good things the Bible has to say about dealing with fear and finding hope knowing that those very things will come pouring out of my mouth.

turn away from evil and do good…

As an act of our will, we must turn away from any thought or action that is not in line with the way a disciple of Christ would conduct themselves. I get it, we want to defend our position, we want to “open people’s eyes” to our way of thinking and our “truth”. And yet Jesus’ life was about sacrificing himself, serving others, loving people enough to die for them. If we care more about being heard, than hearing…we’re off base. If we care more about public opinion, than people…we’re off base.

Instead of arguing for hours on social media or with family and friends, let’s put that aside and start doing good. I’m not saying you can’t have an opinion, but we have an unbelievable opportunity to reach out to a world that is very scared and hurting with the love of Jesus. Our actions will speak volumes.

Do good.

The Christ-alternative then: is to stop talking and start doing good.

seek and pursue peace…

Seek and pursue are two hard-core words aren’t they…I mean, take a minute and think about them! We are supposed to look for peace, relentlessly run after it…hunt it down. This is a call to selfless action, to search for the higher calling, the deeper meaning in each situation, the tearing down of the fence that divides us so we can come together in the middle and help those who are hurting.

The Christ-alternative then: is to lay aside all the things that divide us so that we can go and do good to our brothers and sisters.

Oh Jesus, help us! Forgive us for our blindness, for our inability to see beyond personal preservation. Thank you for your word which opens our eyes! Help us to fill our heart and minds with good things, help us replace endless opinion and dissention with actions that encourage and build up those in need. Help us tear down the fences and walls that divide, teach us to seek and pursue peace. Thank you Lord for seeing us, for hearing us. We love you Lord!