It’s July.
Somehow, though I have no clue how, we have reached more than the halfway mark of 2020.
Many of us would call 2020 a crisis, a wilderness of sorts. There have been plenty of days where the news is too hard and so painful to consume, where the world just feels like too much to handle. It’s been hard to hold on to hope but even when I don’t fully believe it, I whisper “it’s okay, this time is necessary and ordained.”
But if I’ve had any lockdown learnings it’s this:
I don’t think these first six months has been a time of standing still or pressing pause, but a time to change things – to turn around and build a new way.
This is the time of shaking up – a plea to let go of all our distractions and see this world of ours with clear eyes.
It’s a time of awakening from our slumber into something new, building up a faith of no reference point.
And awakening hurts. It’s not gentle or easy.
When Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane, right before he was arrested, He asked his disciples to stay in the garden and “keep vigil”. Basically telling them to stay awake at a time where it would be easier to sleep. And when he came back from praying, He found those same disciples fast asleep.
He said to Peter in Mathews 26:40-41, “Can’t you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert; be in prayer so you don’t wander into temptation without even knowing you’re in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.”
I love how Jesus didn’t coddle his disciples. He didn’t nudge them softly. His wake-up call was alarming and shocking. He wasn’t afraid to call them out in order to call them up towards the more that was coming.
We say we are ready for anything but we are often caught sleeping at the turning points.
We say we want to be used by God but we use the best hours of our day to scroll through the lives of other people.
We say “send me” but we also add in, “only if it looks how I want it to look.”
Rest assured, for most of us 2020 has not looked how we wanted it to look but it does not change the fact that we are called – that we are meant to be lights in a broken world, to shine for Him & that when we say “anything” , we have to be open to the “anything” we didn’t plan for.
2020 isn’t over yet. There is no invitation to clear the first six months and start fresh. We need the hard to make the new.
We need the ugly to fully rejoice in the beauty.
Today I just want to encourage you:
Bring all your hard moments
Your uncertainty
Your fear
Your doubt
Your restlessness in your spirit
and
Bring all the unexpected goodness,
The unspoken gratitude
All the beauty that has somehow sprouted up in this time of a full blown pandemic
Bring all the growth, prayer and learning
Bring it ALL to Him; and let it churn in you. We need all of it to have the fullest feast from 2020.
It’s time to be alert. It’s time to wake up. It’s time to get ready for anything.
Don’t quit.
