Sea change
These are strange days. A self isolating world has flipped on its head the way we do life and is beginning to gnaw away at how we think. We’ve been time-poor for the last twenty years, always in a rush, with no time to think. Now there is time — (I appreciate I’m generalising a bit here, I know for some, doctors, nurses, teachers and many others life just got incredibly busy. To those on the front line, on behalf of those saving the world from the couch, thank you) — But carrying on, we’ve not tended to dwell on our problems; either the big problems in the world or the ones in our own lives and when we have dwelt on them we’ve not found it easy to agree about what they are or what we should do about them. It feels like things have changed!
Now we have time to think.
Now we’re all focusing on the same problem. Now, because we recognise it poses the same threat to others as it does to us we have some compassion for others vulnerable to the problem. And incredibly, though we’re struggling as a society to do it, we have some agreement on a solution. We need to stop, be kind and consider others as well as ourselves. That’s literally been the news this last few weeks, have you noticed that?! What a thing for the world to be thinking about, quite a sea change.
Online wisdom
The social network is one place we air our wisdom and insights through this pandemic. One post that brought a bit of joy to my heart said something like this
When this is all over and corona virus is gone, we’re gonna party like never before and hug like there’s no tomorrow.
So I’m not really a hugger, more the firm handshake type and I don’t mind my own space; a long lonely run is my best friend. But just a few days in isolation and even I’m aching for a hug. No peck on the cheek for my mum on Mother’s day. No life affirming cuddle with my newborn niece… No stopping for a natter with the neighbours (my most favourite thing). In the absence of human contact and with the cold fear of our mortality over us, we’re learning huge lessons about what it means to be people. There’s much we would do well to remember when we come out the other side of this.
Gods’ Word should fill our lungs
All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training for righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16
Paul tells Timothy that scripture is like God breathing life into us.
I don’t know how you’re getting on in isolation or what your relationship with the Bible is? I’ve been reading Psalms these last few weeks. What do you make of these old songs? I’ve looked at them over the years the same way I would look at those love / rock ballads from the early 90’s. Remember Roxette? Maybe you don’t?
it must have been love but it’s over now.
or Jon Bon Jovi?
I should have seen it coming when the roses died /should have seen the end of summer in your eyes / I should have listened when you said goodnight / You really meant goodbye. This Ain’t a Love song.
I’d hear these songs and buy into them, believe them, if you like, but was always a bit baffled at the level of intensity. Why are you screaming Jon? Why the tears Roxette? I knew what love was, what it could be, but I lived in a small working class town where your girlfriend was someone you met down the chippy! It felt like JBJ’s world was never one I was meant to inhabit. But then, if you’re lucky, you fall in love and things change. You know a little of what Jon is talking about, he doesn’t sound so unnecessarily intense anymore, in fact you start to wonder if he might have nailed it.
Psalms can be like this…
As the deer pants for the water so my soul longs after you, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God . Psalm 46
or the most famous one
The LORD is my Shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul… Even though I walk through the darkest valley I will fear no evil for you are with me. Psalm 23.
They’re beautiful, and I know it’s all true, I believe it… but it all feels a bit far off, a bit unnecessarily intense, a bit like a world I might never inhabit.
Something’s been able to change in how I’ve read the bible recently. I can’t totally put my finger on it but perhaps… With more time, in the fear and uncertainty, with more of a focus on my own soul than the sermon I need to write or routine I need to keep, God’s word has had room to breathe, time to ruminate around my head and fill my lungs; restore my soul more than be the quick fix. The Psalms have become less like distant love ballads I’m not meant to get and more like a diary I’ve written and need to read over to remember what life’s all about.
There’s something to treasure in the struggle.
It’s one of the Biblical wisdoms we’d rather ignore. C.S. Lewis captured it like this — “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” When Peter talks about trials he describes them as coming so that our faith, of greater worth than gold, might be refined. He’s saying — your faith is the single most important thing and it gets stronger in struggle! These could be the darkest most difficult days in a century. But there is also treasure here, things we would never otherwise see or learn.
Ash Gibson, Pastor, Christchurch Xscape
