My son, Rylan did a report for his studies on the effect of the first lockdown on small business. At that time 30% of small businesses were not able to adapt or survive. A survey was recently done with local businesses and of the remaining ones that did survive, 70% felt that were in danger of closing going through this yet again. It certainly is a difficult season for many and in my business of roofing, it already is a built in down time due to the end of our work season.
The question is how do
we survive and stay sane in the midst of the chaos? The number of cases
continually is on the rise despite the efforts, masks and everything in
place…and oh yeah, there’s another Covid strain and it’s even more contagious!
I know the vaccine is coming and there’s a lot of uncertainty there as well as
to its timing, effectiveness and what are the long term implications… will I
turn into the “walking dead” lol? It is
certainly something we have never seen before and everyone is looking for
answers and more importantly when can we get back to a more normal life?
When we go to the
Scriptures we can learn a lot from the life of those who lived under similar
circumstances, however they found themselves in the wilderness. The Israelites found themselves in the
wilderness for over 40 years when they made their pilgrimage to the Promised
Land. David found himself in the
wilderness for over a decade leading up to His time as the King of the Israelites
and we also find Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days leading into His public
ministry.
At once, this same Spirit pushed Jesus out into
the wild. For forty wilderness day and nights he was tested by Satan. Wild animals were his companions, and angels
took care of him. Mark 1:12,13
I believe there are
answers for us and strength to get us through this upcoming month of lockdown
and I want to bring encouragement for a good “wilderness of the soul” time in
His presence.
I have been reading
“Leap Over A Wall” by Eugene Peterson…it just happens to be another thrift
store bargain find for me and I want to share insights that have inspired me
while reading this book for this time.
Here’s how you know
you are in the wilderness – you don’t have any assignments, you don’t have any
appointments to keep and you are not in control. I can honestly say that pretty much sums up
my life right now. When we are in the
wilderness we have a choice, we can choose to allow this time to simplify and
deepen us or we can live aimlessly and without direction.
Survival Tip 1
Learn To Be Intentional
If you have ever
watched “Survivorman,” you know that the wilderness is a place of pristine
beauty and breathtaking discoveries and it is also a place of sinister threats
and danger as well. WE are right now
living in this tension of choosing to live in fear or live with courage through
this time. In this chaos of time where
each day starts looking more and more the same, we have the opportunity to be
intentional or simply to drift. Drifting
is easy and can easily become second nature to us. Being intentional means I take time to plan,
to focus, to pursue direction. In the
midst of all this uncertainty, our feelings erupt in us and cause us to
question a lot of things that we did before and why we did them. I pray that we choose to be even more
conscious of the Holy Spirit, more aware of His living presence in us and
through us than ever before. I pray that
His calm, transcendent peace will cover our lives with confident hope and
wisdom for our present situation.
Survival Tip # 2 Discover The Sacred In The Wild
The wilderness is one
of the greatest places of testing for our faith. The wilderness is untamed and wild. It isn’t domesticated and come with the
comforts of home. It is in the place
that David is hated and hunted like an animal.
It is here that he can choose to curse God or choose to depend on Him
like never before. It is in this place
that David chooses the sacred, he chooses the path of holiness, but not in a
ritual-like way with priestly clothing.
It is a real earthy spirituality as Eugene described.
Holy is our best way to describe that life –
the human aliveness that comes from dealing with God-Alive. We’re most human when we deal with God. Any other way of life leaves us less human,
less ourselves.
It was in the
wilderness of En-gedi, a rugged place near the Dead Sea known for cliffs,
canyons and caves is where David truly experienced and understood the holy
presence of God. It was here that David
learned to discover beauty in everything and everywhere. He had the opportunity to take Saul’s life at
a most vulnerable moment, a time when Saul was relieving himself. Instead, David cuts a piece of his clothing
and then when Saul is on the other side of the canyon, he calls out to him, “my
Lord, the king”. In 1 Samuel 24, David goes on to show Saul that he is not his
enemy and furthermore sees Saul still as the Lord’s anointed. This is significant because we know through
Samuel that the anointing on his life had long left him. David had an awareness of the sanctity of
life that God had given him even though this very person was seeking to destroy
his.
Survival Tip #3
Experience Him As Your Refuge
Do a word study on
refuge in Psalms and see how many times it pops up. An Old Testament scholar, J. Gamberoni, showed how this word started as
a very physical and geographical word.
Refuge was literally understood as a great hiding place. However in the Psalms it lost all reference
to this definition and became an exclusive reference to Yahweh, the personal,
covenant keeping God who is Refuge personified.
I pray that more and more that we will recognize God as our refuge in
the midst of the upside down, topsy-turvy, turbulent ride that we are on
now. Have you ever been through
turbulence on a plane? There have literally been times where the turbulence was
so bad on a flight to me that I was praying desperately to God as my
refuge. However, I want to discover Him
as my refuge as well in the midst of my everyday life.
Eugene described it
this way,
We start with the immediate data of our lives –
a messy house, a balky car, a cranky spouse, a recalcitrant child (and on our
good days a burst of sunrise, an ecstatic smile, a piercing insight.) We start
our being desperate in the wilderness of En-gedi, and before we know it we’re
ecstatic in the wilderness of God.
The prayer of David
traditionally assigned to this time period is Psalm 57. I leave this with you as your inspiration for
yes, another lockdown. May you and I
learn to be intentional, discover the sacred in the midst of this confusion and
experience the LORD as our refuge in a new way, a way we would have never
discovered before!
Psalm 57 The Message
1-3 Be
good to me, God—and now!
I’ve run to you for dear life.
I’m
hiding out under your wings
until the hurricane blows over.
I call
out to High God,
the God who holds me together.
He
sends orders from heaven and saves me,
he humiliates those who kick me around.
God
delivers generous love,
he makes good on his word.
4 I find
myself in a pride of lions
who are wild for a taste of human flesh;
Their
teeth are lances and arrows,
their tongues are sharp daggers.
5 Soar
high in the skies, O God!
Cover the whole earth with your glory!
6 They
booby-trapped my path;
I thought I was dead and done for.
They
dug a mantrap to catch me,
and fell in headlong themselves.
7-8
I’m ready, God, so ready,
ready from head to toe,
Ready
to sing, ready to raise a tune:
“Wake up, soul!
Wake
up, harp! wake up, lute!
Wake up, you sleepyhead sun!”
9-10
I’m thanking you, God, out loud in the streets,
singing your praises in town and country.
The
deeper your love, the higher it goes;
every cloud is a flag to your faithfulness.
11
Soar high in the skies, O God!
Cover the whole earth with your glory!
A little humor goes a long way too...one of my favorite memes from this year...
