Continuing on from Part 1, and As some parts of the world begin incrementally 'lifting' some of the restrictions of the last months, let us not be quick to forget some further lessons this time may teach us...
2.- We might be learning more of what it might mean to minister better to 'shut ins' and 'the disabled'
(to know how to minister well, means first understanding well, and what better way to understand than to experience it yourself!)
a recent
blogger mused about how the current 'lockdown' restrictions might in some way resemble other life contexts and he wrote:
Is this something like racial segregation, being told I can't go in a certain store or restaurant?
Is this something like a concentration camp, living with suffering and not knowing how long it will last?
Is this something like poverty, not getting to buy the food I want for my family?
Is this something like prison, not being allowed to leave the premises?
Is this something like summer, with kids home all the time and minimal time alone?
Is this something like loneliness, wishing for human interaction and not knowing how to get it?
Is this something like having a child with a terminal illness, always being careful where they go and what they are exposed to?
Is this something like Jesus in the Garden, wanting to have company in his suffering?
Is this something like the persecuted Church, not being allowed to meet together?
Is this something like Heaven, time out of time or beyond time?
What is this time teaching you about being better able to pray for the needs of others, to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice?
3. We could be learning more about what it means to go cross-culturally…and discovering coping mechanisms from such brothers and sisters in Christ who have already walked that road before.
This blogger highlighted several parallels of what cross-cultural workers experience (which we would agree with!) such as:
- 'social' - physical distancing from home church, friends, and extended family - missionaries can't just pop in to visit elderly parents and their kids can't just easily visit grandparents. We (missionaries) are far away from friends and lack of face-to-face contact can mean communication isn't so easy and it can feel like we are 'losing contact'. Home church links are through email, a phone call here and there, and listening to sermons on-line (or before the on-line days, it was waiting to be sent cassette or video recordings of sermons as part of a 'care parcel' by post)
- new ways of shopping - we can't just pop down to the local store and pick up things we are familiar with. We have to learn new things to cook and the items we want may not be available…and may not be available for months! We often have to buy things on-line or from overseas that we need for particular ministry or personal needs, and wait for parcels to arrive in the mail (which also may take months!)
- new ways of greeting - we had to suddenly learn a new style of greeting with a two-handed-arm-held-triple-handshake and slight bend of the knee …every time we met someone.
- evading new diseases - a new environment meant exposure to new diseases and an even greater alertness to hygiene. When we arrived into Africa the HIV epidemic was extreme and we had to learn what to do and not to do. We had to learn to be extra vigilent regarding greater occurrences of gastro-intestinal infections due to different local food storage, transport and preparation contexts. Often soap and water were unavailable so bottles of hand sanitiser are a constant companion!
Here is another blog highlighting similarities between the
culture-shock experience that missionaries encounter and what people are experiencing right now with adjusting to new ways of life in 'lockdowns' and movement restrictions etc.
How might this time be teaching you - teaching your church - how to better pray for and partner with your missionaries?
4. We might be growing more in appreciation for what we usually take for granted
- the blessings of what we had in our daily lives - (ease of movement, freedom to meet, maybe a job we took for granted etc), but also the blessings of the church being able to gather together as well as minister face to face more easily. The blessing of being able to share communion together, hug a hurting friend, be with the family of a dying church member in hospital, have a kids holiday VBS program, have home cell groups, meet some friends for lunchtime bible study and prayer over coffee, invite neighbours for dinner, babysit the kids of some friends while they had a weekend away for an anniversary.
During this time, many are having to experience what some people have to live with each day.
How will new experiences and understandings shape and change church ministry in the future?
How will not taking blessings for granted make us more joyful, kind to others, considerate, patient, gentle and loving….more Christlike, more as Jesus' hands and feet in the world?
How will this time teach us to be more thankful? Remember one of the accusations against this world in Romans 1 is that we not only fail to honour God, but we fail to give thanks to him.
Let us not be weighed down with worry and grief over what we have 'lost', but give thanks for what we took for granted, and for what God is doing and will do through this time. God can be trusted to do what is best for those who are called according to his purposes, and what we think we might have 'lost' might just be a 'gain' of something even better. Do we really believe that?
5. We might be being prompted to a greater leaning on the Lord and looking to the Lord
I have been amazed at how many messages I have received by email and text and whatsapp from Christians saying we need to pray (often that they have received as forwarded from others).
I have had requests to pray at 7am and 7pm in your time zone (so these are messages meant to reach all the way around the globe and be a 'continual' prayer of God's people, wrapping the world in prayer so to speak), to pray for countries' leaders, medical personnel, the sick, the church to respond well, protection for the vulnerable etc etc. I have had people desperate about ways they feel their government is or may not be handling the situation well and they feel there is nowhere else to turn but to pray.
Is this maybe a time when God is exposing to his children just how easy it is to lean on our circumstances and our possessions, our social positions and false senses of security, instead of on the Lord?
It is never a bad thing for us to learn to trust God more and have our own hearts revealed to us through the situations we are in.
It is never a bad thing (although it might feel bad), to have our trust pulled from the wrong things and onto God, and it is never a bad thing to be caused to see where our hearts fail to rest in the Lord, and turn to the Lord, when they should.
It's never a bad thing to be reminded that we are weak and prone to fear, and we need God who is strong and says 'do not be afraid'.
It is never a bad thing to grow in our understanding of where our mis-placed trust might be hindering God's work in and through us and thus hindering our worship of Him and hindering God being able to use us to bring others to worship him!
If we are being prompted to humble ourselves, pray, turn from our ways that are wicked and dishonour the Lord, (2 Chronicales 7:14), then this COVID-19 is not detrimental to the church, but beneficial to the church, and might just be a severe mercy to shake us out of our complacency and make sure we never go back to the 'normal' of before!
Let's look to the Lord, lean on him in prayer instead of panic, and seek his face as to how he wants to use this situation, and use you in this situation for his glory and humanity's good!
Let's get our eyes off the scariness of our circumstances and onto the Lord. When our eyes get off him onto the circumstances we will begin to sink in the fear and uncertainty of the circumstances, but with our eyes on Jesus, we will be able to navigate the path to walk through the midst of the circumstances! (Matthew 14)
6. We might be gaining a greater understanding and appreciation for just a little taste of what Jesus endured for us
I really appreciated what
this blogger had to say as he pondered the situation of being unable to 'gather' in the usual manner as Christ's church, especially in the light of Easter….
The feeling of isolation, loneliness, and sadness comes from not being able to gather together with our church family. Rather than try to find some sort of faux-joy in amongst all the strangeness, perhaps it is appropriate to lament…?
After all, we enter Passion Week tomorrow, the week that symbolises the final week of Jesus' life, culminating in his horrific death and glorious resurrection.
And perhaps this is something we can take away from this season? As we recognise the aloneness of this season this year it may help us enter more into the aloneness of Christ during this time. Though Jesus was surrounded by his disciples, and though he continued his ministry in this final week, we read of the unique isolation he felt as he headed toward the cross. Luke 22:42-44 helps reveal this to us:
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me—nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." Then an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. Being in anguish, he prayed more fervently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.
And so, while we may feel alone, sad, and grieved, unable to meet in the same physical location this week perhaps this provides us with an opportunity to see Jesus more clearly and walk his way more steadily?
Some have
here and
here also noted that this time feels like living between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday would have been for the disciples.
So what can we learn as the church now, during this time,
that will enable us, when we can gather again in our local gatherings,
to better 'be' the church,
to each other and to our neighbours,
and to our world,
and better long for the fulness of heaven, when the church will be all that our Lord Jesus died to purchase back on that first Easter Day?
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