Lockdown Survival Techniques

Christchurch Xscape
5 min readMay 27, 2020

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Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

I’m not always a glass half full type, but ten weeks into lockdown and I’m still impressed!

Even in a week when we learnt about Dominic Cummings choosing the longest, weirdest way to take an eye test (he really should’ve gone to Specsavers) which caused the nation’s shoulders to collectively slump and wonder if we are all in it together after all… I’m still impressed. Why?

The human spirit for survival in this pandemic just keeps blowing me away. The innovative ways we are learning to cope keep warming my heart.

Now I’m not making comparisons with WW1 and WW2. I’ve heeded the warnings on social media and I know our problems are only first world problems; essentially our biggest boast is how long we can watch TV for. But there’s a richness and a depth to our lockdown spirit I didn’t think we had in us.

I see people taking real joy from nature on their walks, savouring sunsets, treasuring friends on Zoom, re-energised by street claps and online yoga in their living rooms. People embracing their gardens, playing games, learning crafts and baking treats.

ITV keeps reminding me to check in on my friends, my unknown neighbours keep painting and hiding rocks for me to find and ads on Spotify tell me how I can workout at home without even knowing about it! Very kind. They also tell me how inferior to Premium my service is and how the faster runners have all upgraded. Actually they say everything apart from that last bit, that’s in my head.

But I want to throw another survival technique into the mix because, though these are good, I think our enthusiasm for them will pass. It’s an ancient technique that humans have returned to over and over again throughout the centuries, in order to find hope. It’s prayer.

You know prayer; the thing you do at church or before bed, or when you want something you can’t get, or when the plane you’re on catches fire. These are all legitimate uses for prayer, especially the last one, but prayer is so much more than that; so much more than what we use it for.

Prayer is a meditation, it comforts the mind

Most of my prayers as a kid were lists; blessings for family members I liked and stuff I wanted but couldn’t afford. When I think about it, my prayers are still often loaded with lists, I just present them more subtly when I pray now. It’s easy to get into this habit with prayer, and it’s not wrong to bring our requests to God, but if that’s all we bring we may be missing out. When David the Psalmist prays to God he spends time just chewing over who God is and what he’s done. Loads of Psalms start with him getting up early just to think about who God is.

I rise before dawn and cry for help, I hope in your words, my eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise. (Psalm 119:147–148)

Now, this may sound boring, or a bit of an effort, especially if you’re not a morning person. But imagine starting your day having dwelt on the nature of God for long enough that your mind reorders itself, to the extent that God’s promises are at the top of your list!

Prayer is a release, it helps us lose some baggage

So we said lists aren’t all bad; it’s good to bring things to God. But sometimes our lists just get longer and we never manage to tick anything off. Lists only work when you work through them and tick off the items, not when they get so big they remind you of how much you’re carrying around. Jesus said come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. We’re not just supposed to keep adding to the list of problems we have or things we want; he came so we might be able to drop some things off. He says don’t just tell me about it, but leave it with me!

Part of the mental torment of lockdown is we have nowhere to take our frustrations, whether caused by our own lack of sleep, money worries or whatever. We wake up in the same house, we share our troubles with the same people and, often, the worry list remains. In praying we don’t just inform God, we actively release our frustrations. We offload our troubles to him. Though the problems may remain, our load is lighter because we entrust them to him.

Prayer focuses you on a positive future, it allows you to move forward

One of the toughest elements of lockdown has been trying to see a way through it. For many it has brought great insecurity. Life has become about survival, I’ve heard that a lot. ‘How are you doing…?’ ‘I’m surviving!’ We survive; we don’t think too much about the future when we’re not sure what it will be. So we get stuck!

When Jesus taught the disciples to pray the prayer many Christians can say verbatim, he taught words that would always allow them to look forward, no matter what the circumstances. Its opening line; Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come your will be done, on earth as in heaven… means whatever you’re going to talk to God about, no matter how desperate the situation is, you affirm with your words that he already holds the outcomes, and that they are good because it’s His Kingdom that comes. I can’t imagine what the disciples thought about their future having seen how Jesus suffered. But Jesus gave them a way to move on. Prayer does this. It’s more than a list; it’s a solace for the soul, a meditation for the heart, a weight off the burdened, a way forward for the trapped. Well worth a minute after your walk.

In the coming months Christchurch will stand with the other churches in and around Cas and Ponte and pray for our towns. Please would you stand with us at this time!

#prayforcas #prayforponte

God bless,

Ash Gibson, Pastor, Christchurch Xscape

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Christchurch Xscape
Christchurch Xscape

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