“I'm giving you back time” - God
In this season of change I have been thinking about what are the positives of this time and how maybe God really is making good out of a bad situation. It says in His word in Paul’s letter to the Romans.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. (Romans Chapter 8:28)
In this verse there is a truth that we really can hang on to. This truth is that God is working all things for good. It means that good will come through any situation or circumstance, even if it seems like the darkness is too dark. He created the world at the beginning and His words after those 6 days was that it was good. God has not changed his mind and he still sees us, His creation as good.
The truth is that there is no darkness too dark for God. As John 1:5 says
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John Chapter 1 verse 5.)
One of the greatest goods that I believe has come back to us in the season of COVID-19 is time.
Time pre covid was seemingly non-existent. The amount of times I would hear things like;
“I'm just too busy and don’t have enough time” or
“If only there were more hours in a day i could do that” or
“I think I need two of me to complete all the tasks I have to do.”
It seems as though we may have been releasing a cry out to a creator, a higher being for a long time. I am the first to admit that I have spoken these words into the air, thinking that maybe God would hear it.
As a Christian we believe that God is the Alpha and the Omega, that He is the beginning and the end and He is above time. If this is the case I kind of think that one of the ways that the Father of time is working is helping us realise that the 24 hour day that He gave us at the beginning was enough time to do all the things that we are supposed to do. All the things that are the most important things in our lives.
If we are honest with ourselves that in the weeks of COVID and Isolation measures, most of have realised that there is portion of time that has been given back to us. If we have taken on this season in a positive way we would have or are reinstating practices, routines and values that have been lost in busyness of our lives.
In my last article I quoted CS Lewis from 1942 and part of that quote was that people were reconnecting with neighbours, families were eating around the table together and that our lives would be slowed down. This season has truly seen the most valuable parts of lives resurface, that before this time had been buried by pursuit of possessions, money and experiences. To me it seems that most of these pursuits have been driven completely by a motivation to escape the life of busyness that we have been consumed with in our day to day existence.
I have noticed that those who were snowed in by 50 hour plus working week are now walking along the beaches with a smile and joy and there is a bounce in each step that I did not see before COVID-19.
I have also seen that deck chairs out the front of my neighbour’s houses with friendly chats has become the norm, rather than hours of television time, watching shows that simply in one word are meaningless, full of crap and don’t add one bit of value to a person's life.
My phone has rang more than it has in the last 2 years. I have found my conversations have revolved around people's life dreams being resurfaced, many re-connecting and talking to family members and people genuinely asking one another how are you going? This question has taken on so much more meaning in this time. We now have the opportunity to care for each other as God wanted and always intended us to do when He created us in his image and likeness.
So when we look back at this time we need to realise that God has given us back time in this season and He has and is working all things for good. He is allowing us the opportunity to rediscover those things in life that truly matter.
I hope that the COVID-19 season is long enough to build into our lives some of the good values, habits and routines that actually make us happier and more joyful in life.
This past week I saw Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church in America preach a message about not wanting for things to go back to normal, but rather we should look forward to a new kind of normal, a better normal, a normal that is so much more life filled and is truly lived as the master creator intended us to live it.
God says “I'm giving you back time’ and asking ‘what are you going to do with it?’
“The choice is yours”
Married to the amazing Liana Monaghan for 13 years, a fellow creative that is just trying to release a little bit of heaven this side of eternity. How do I do that? I draw, paint, love people and surf my way through the streets and beaches of South Australia.
