Read Deuteronomy 5:12-15
As I reflect more and more on the coronavirus and the ways it has disrupted our lives I keep wondering what God-given fruit might come from this time. Don’t get me wrong there are rocky moments now and ahead of us. Some people are fighting the actual disease and have died from it. Some are wrestling with the economic implications and lost wages and benefits. Some are wrestling with no longer having access to the safety and nurture of their classrooms. Some are wrestling with anxiety and mental health issues from the isolation and worry. There is serious fallout from the coronavirus.
Yet, I believe that God is at work in every situation. We have been slaves to a way of life for a long time now. We have pushed ourselves, or have been pushed by others to our limits and sometimes beyond them. I listened at the store the other day to someone who has been working three jobs and has to take paid time off to leave one job early just to make it to another one on time. I’ve listened to parents lament the amount of time their child’s activities have taken. I’ve heard from plenty of people who longed for life to just slow down, to sit down for a meal together instead of rushing from one thing to the next.
Although this is not how any of us would have wished it, a lot of us have received just what we asked for, more time together as families. More time to devote to devotions, conversations with loved ones, time off work and out of the rat race that life has become to many.
What are you going to do with the next few weeks or months? What new patterns might you discover? How can you use this intentional time of slowing to refocus on what matters and re-prioritize your life? What are you doing with some unplanned sabbath time?
Hear these words from the hymn “O God, in restless living” and sit with them for a while:
O God, in restless living
We lose our spirits’ peace.
Calm our unwise confusion,
You bid our clamor cease.
Let anxious hearts grow quiet,
Like pools at evening still,
Till your reflected heavens
All our spirits fill.
Teach us, beyond our striving,
The rich rewards of rest.
Who does not live serenely
Is never deeply bless’d.
O tranquil, radiant Sunlight,
You bring our lives to flower,
Less wearied with our effort
More aware of power.
Receptive make our spirits,
Our need is to be still;
As dawn fades flickering candle
So dim our anxious will.
Reveal your radiance through us,
Your ample strength release,
Not ours but yours the triumph,
In the power of peace.
We grow not wise by struggling,
We gain but things by strain.
We cease to water gardens,
When comes your plenteous rain.
O beautify our spirits
In restfulness from strife;
Enrich our souls in secret
With abundant life.
Grace and Peace to you, Amen.