This Covid 19 crisis is dragging on too long! Do you remember the glorious Spring weather of April and May, when lock down was a novel experience, and the guidelines were crystal clear? Now we are confused about what we can and cannot do, and we are increasingly fed up with looking at screens in Zoom calls. How long, O Lord, until we can all gather again like we used to? How we miss exuberantly worshipping together and then giving everyone a big hug!
God does not want us to indulge in nostalgia for the past, or wallow in self-pity over our current circumstances. Just as certainly as God has sovereignly allowed this pandemic, he has a plan to ‘prosper and not to harm’ us (Jeremiah 29:11). That should give us a hope that energises us to engage with the present. In fact, it is by seizing the opportunities opening up around us now that we will be prepared for the future.
Someone said that a crisis is an accelerator. It hastens the demise of the old models that were in decline anyway, and speeds up the emergence of the new ways of the future.
What opportunities are you seeing now that point to the shape of life and fruitful ministry post pandemic?
Julyan Lidstone
