How
are things with you these days? I imagine there have been significant
changes to your normal routine. Confinement has seen me running out
of excuses and actually tacking the mess I laughingly call my study.
(Starting to tackle)
My
local shop is allowing just two customers in at any one time. He has
considerately marked out the floor into metre squares in black and
yellow tape. Shopping is now a dance class, but we are all grateful.
I like chunky rolled oats for my porridge and it is not easy to come
by these days. But my local shopkeeper, who doesn’t usually carry
them, found a box for me and made a friend for life.
I
needed to visit the chemist in the city centre and the roads and
pavements were quieter than a wet Sunday morning in November. I knew
the police were stopping drivers to ask if they have a legitimate
reason to be out. I did, but I still felt somehow guilty, waiting for
that tap on the shoulder. We had to go to the hospital and that
journey has never been so quick and trouble free.
When
I walk my dog the streets are eerily quiet. I am reminded of the 1959
film On The Beach,
an end of the world following nuclear war story by Nevil Shute.
Streets become increasingly bare and empty, ordinary life breaks down
as the radiation poison spreads. The only person left in the world in
the end is the cameraman. Funny that.
Of
course, this isn’t the end of the world. We will get through this,
though at unimaginable cost in lives, livelihoods, mental, emotional,
and economic damage. As we become accustomed to this new reality,
people will surely find themselves making ‘when this is over’
promises to themselves. When this is over I’m going to stop making
excuses and...
chase
that job...
Take
that trip…
End
that relationship…
Mend
that relationship…
Finally
propose…
Start
my business…
Hold
my family that much closer...
Fill
in your own ‘when this is over’ promise…
However,
when this is over some of us won’t be here, and not just because of
Covid-19. Notwithstanding the virus the mortality rate is still 100%
- that’s life. We are all staring into eternity. For some it is
more immediate than for others, but it is a reality for all. One
thing I have learned is you can’t negotiate with eternity.
Perhaps
mercy will come back into fashion. People tend to think of mercy as a
quaint idea folk used to value ‘in the olden days.’ We don’t
value it in these days of central heating, online shopping, trendy
diets, and streaming entertainment. Perhaps we should take another
look in these times of uncertainty. Perhaps fear will drive us to our
knees. Nothing else seems to.
Can
I suggest, also, instead of making ‘when this is over’
resolutions, those who can might take ‘by the time this is over’
actions. Many are already complaining about how restrictive and
boring this enforced isolation is. It looks like life isn’t going
to get back to normal (whatever your normal is) for some time to
come.
I
am currently inundated with offers of free to download books about
all sorts of subjects, short courses that are normally paid for, for
a limited time, are being offered in exchange for simply signing up
to a list. Perhaps, like me, you have some sorting out to do. Why not
use the time wisely and with purpose. By the time this is over I will
have…
Learned
a language…
Called
an old friend…
Sorted
my shed…
Planted
a border…
Started
a blog…
Started
a website…
Learned
the piano…
Talked
to someone about God...
Talked
to God about someone… (how is your prayer life?)
Picked
up my Bible and read it in great chunks, making a meal of my reading,
instead of pecking at it like a bird...
How
many of us have looked longingly at a picture of the Christian life
as we know it might be lived; with wholehearted devotion, disciplined
prayer, living out what God has put in us, reflecting the words of
Paul:
‘Not
that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press
on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing
I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies
ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of
God in Christ Jesus.’ (Philip.3:12-14)
Let’s
not romanticise this any longer, but let’s realise in our lives the
need to grow, the pressing on, forgetting what lies behind, not
allowing our past to hinder us, straining forward, answering the
upward call of God, no matter what others may do or think declaring
by our very lives, ‘I am Christ’s and he is mine.’
That
would be a good ‘by the time this is over’ resolution.
Of
course, when this is over I will hold my family closer and I am sure
you will yours. When this is over I will want to make changes, moved
perhaps by these times, resolved maybe by the reassessment that is
common to many of us in these days, to make a greater difference in
my little part of the world. But...
What
will you have done by the time this is over?
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