Weekly Reflection for May 7th, 2020
When Change is not at our Request
A friend in conversation recently spoke this sentence to me: “We all like to choose change. We don’t like when it’s put upon us.” I realise that is not exactly profound, and yet I think it really sums up how many, most of us are feeling about our various COVID-19 spaces.
Our challenge then is what do we do, how best can we live well, with and in this uninvited, space? A space where many of us are now starting to understand that the “ordinary” turns out to not be so ordinary after all. All the hugs, the hearing what is not being said as we spend physical time in another’s presence, the inner healing and comfort for all which comes from our being present during sickness, and death. There is so much more too- birthdays passed over, holidays cancelled…What a strange space eh!?
My first thought, one I feel quite strongly about is this: Surviving COVID-19 must not be seen as some sort of a competition to see who comes out the other side singing praise songs the loudest. Yes, we are called to give thanks in all circumstances, and so we should. However, the reality is that we all have different personalities, with some of us more naturally able to cope with change better than others may do. Indeed anyone who knows me anyway well at all will know a recurring theme in my prayer life, in my living life with Him, is both the comfort and also the wonder that I can come to Jesus just as I am; which sometimes includes coming messy and often with an uncertain- “help Thou my unbelief” kind of faith.
Flicking through my daily, “chat with God on paper,” journal, time and time again on the margins of the pages I’ve drawn a life buoy attached to an anchor with the words HOPE written on them as my visual for the day. This is mostly because I know that without the Father’s hope and faithfulness anchoring me, life-buoying me, on any given day I could well go under. As the hymn writer P.J. Owens says, I am very thankful that “We have an anchor that keeps the soul; steadfast and sure while the billows role; Fastened to the Rock which cannot move; Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love.”
Albert Barnes writes: “Hope accomplishes for the soul the same thing which an anchor does for a ship. It makes it fast and secure. An anchor preserves a ship when the waves beat and the wind blow, and as long as the anchor holds, so long the ship is safe, and the mariner apprehends no danger.”
Till we meet again may we in our individual, apart from each other for now spaces, deeply know that the One who draws us to Himself, is also the One who has promised to stay by our side until all He’s begun in us has been completed. (Philippians 1:6)
In closing, a few verses and a quote for you to maybe ponder on?
“Your loving-kindness O Lord, reaches to the heaven, your faithfulness to the skies.” Psalm 36:5
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1
“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
“Behold God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He has also become my salvation.” Isaiah 12:2
“When fears surround us, we’d do well to allow our fear of Him to recalibrate all other fears.” Labberon
by Alison King