“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world” – 1 Peter 4:12-13
I stared at the large pile of brand-new clothes on my bed that had been delivered mid-March 2020. I stuffed it back into the large bag it was shipped to me in. Then I took the packing slip and began to start the process of returning all the beautiful spring clothes I would not be wearing anywhere.
Reason for the return? I selected “Other” from the drop-down menu and added in the comments “No where to wear this” (bitter much?)
There would be no dinners out. No church dresses. I had no where to wear my new bikini. Vacation cancellations were being emailed to me daily.
Bringing a bag full of clothes I would never wear to the post office would begin the Covid chapter of my life.
I suspect you too had logistical, practical, crazy ways this began for you too. The uncertainty, the disappointment, the frustrations.
Those are real, valid feelings in the midst of the craziness we all suddenly were facing.
But will those feelings also write the title for this chapter of your life?
Has this season been defined by the disappointments? Has this season had more complaints than praises? And although those moments are worth feeling and acknowledging, did you choose to stay there?
I stepped back to look at the bigger picture about the real purpose of my life on this earth at the start of Covid. I wanted to know what would bring me the most meaning, joy, and fulfillment (even in a pandemic). So I had to go back to the basics if I was ever going to find happiness in Covid.
There is a passage in Matthew in which the Pharisees asked Jesus which was the most important commandment.
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. ’This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 37-40)
And suddenly, Covid didn’t seem to me like the end of all that was good. But rather the beginning of an opportunity to live out those life-giving commandments like never before.
Perspective shift.
No matter what restrictions have been placed on us this year, God has always been accessible and wide open to our love. Actually, I could say that He was never more visible to me than he has been in the last year. Secondly, the opportunities to love our neighbours was literally asked of us every single day. Every time we wore a mask, stayed home when sick, dropped a gift off with someone who was having a rough day, or even as we waved hello from 2m away. We were loving our neighbour. Everyone needed someone to be a neighbour just a bit more than this year. So every little thing meant that much more. There was never a shortage of opportunities to love God or our neighbour.
I say all this because as I write this, Covid isn’t over. Perhaps it will shift to something slightly different in the future. But what will you look back on this time and say about it? What title will it have in your life?
Will you call it the worst year ever? Or the year that was extremely hard, but didn’t break you? The year that grew your faith and your love? The year you realized you could still love God and love others when nothing goes your way? You still have time to define this chapter, because it isn’t over yet. It can still transform into something you never imagined.
In fact, Jesus’ greatest act of love for God and others on the cross was something he did in the midst of the most painful hard moments of his life, not while he was living his best life.
So what actions will write the words on the pages of your life from all this?
Will you complain about every little thing? Protest all over social media? Be overcome with fear? Procrastinate with your dreams a bit longer? Worry about what we have no control over? Hate everyone with a different view? Slip away from God?
OR
Will you seek God like you’ve never sought after him before? Will you let go of control, and put God in control? Cast your anxiety on Him? Will you love God and others like you never have before? Will you stop fighting against what fiery trial has come against you and instead be glad for these trials?
…so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.
We were never promised a life of freedom from things that wreck our plans, bump into our happy, and disrupt our world. We can shake our fist at the injustices we think we are facing, or we can entrust our lives to a just God who wants to write the most beautiful chapter in your life yet.
In case you were curious, I don’t have a title for this season yet.
I’ve handed this chapter to God and asked him to write the title for me.
I’ll keep you posted!
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. – James 1:2-4