The Quarantine Chronicles || Chapter 6 - Ashley

"It's been a wild couple of weeks.  They feel historic and gigantic, probably because they are.  I find myself irritated and hopeful within a minute. It's a tremendous time to be alive.  We lose lives, we lose jobs, we lose freedom, we lose trust in economy and friends, we lose knowing the future.  But, I wake every morning and fight for the hope I have.  I think people think it comes easy, let me assure you, optimism is a skill.  And Hope is a person, not an idea.  We were never in control, it was a mirage.  So now we see where our Hope has been, and it feels messy.  The hope and promise is that God doesn't drive an ambulance, he knew this was coming, and he has a plan for redemption.  Let's keep hope alive, it's all we have today.  Believer, will you be known for your demands and fear, your criticism and politics, your causes and conspiracies?  Or will you be known as one who flies hope higher than all of those things?  I hope we choose hope."   

Jami Nato

Throughout this whole Coronavirus situation, I have felt sheltered from so much of it.  I am one of the lucky ones.  Able and encouraged to work from home.  Able to still get paid.  Able to home-school kids and keep them home in our warm house with a fridge full of food.  Because of these circumstances, I have been able to find much joy amidst the storm.  I have hardly had the TV on since the week we left for Jamaica and it's been necessary as the kids are here and our days are full.  But last night, I turned the nightly news on while they were downstairs and was quickly knocked back to a devastating reality in our world right now.  The numbers are staggering and the outlook feels overwhelming and grim.  The images of nurses, many of them moms and dads themselves, with burns on their faces from wearing the same surgical mask for 12 hour days, fighting their own selfish desires to keep themselves and their families safe while serving the sick with love and care.  Video footage of elderly patients in isolated care facilities, their family members waving and smiling from the other side of a window.  These pictures get lodged in my brain, they swirl around with the simple pictures of blessings under my roof, and they unlock all sorts of feelings - of gratitude and guilt, joy and sadness, comfort and fear.  

Christian believers talk a lot about the importance of finding your purpose - and sometimes, we make it into this big blueprint type thing that feels weighty and confusing.  I led an entire study on a book with a curriculum to help determine our unique purposes.  And while that heart work and reflection is valuable and important, I sometimes think we make it harder than what God ever intended it to be.  I won't forget one night at our book study, Deb, our oldest participant of the group, said that to her, purpose was simply waking up every morning, living simply and confidently in who you are in Christ and where you can serve others in His name.  And then, as the years pile up and you are blessed to look back on them, you can hardly believe the ways God worked through your daily obedience.  

Those words were so freeing to me that night.  And I've been able to put them into practice since.  Maybe purpose is simply in the everyday, getting up and doing well in whatever God calls you to do.  Purpose today could be

-Choosing patience and thankfulness as the kids are bouncing off the walls during another day of home-school

-Learning to be quiet and hear God in the silence of another day at home by yourself

-Putting on that mask for another day of serving God's people at their darkest hour

-Making a faithful step in your small business

-Sending a hand-written note to someone as a means to connect

I think what God is showing me through all of this is that everyday purpose actually leads to revival.  That is hope.  That is God.  

And watching the people on the front lines of it all?  Man, they push me to do better in the everyday.  They push me to praise and pray and stand in awe at the hands and feet of Jesus.  

I keep replaying the words in my head - see the gifts.  Be the gift.  It's all around me.  People calling out the simple joys.  People loving others well in so many different ways.  When we don't know what lies ahead, I think we put a much better investment in our daily lot.  And we give the rest to God.  Maybe that's really what it's all about.