Social Distancing, Self Quarantine, Lock Down. These are the realities of life currently in most countries around the world. What does this mean for me? Similar to many, for me this means working from home, hanging out with my roommates, conference calls with co-workers, and connecting over social media with my family and friends. There’s no doubt that this pandemic has and will affect just about every aspect of our lives. From relationships to finances, most people are already experiencing a change.
But what does this mean for our spiritual lives? How does this affect my relationship with God? Is that part of my life safely outside the life-altering reach of the coronavirus?

I have found that this time has forced me to slow down in my life. Where my schedule a few weeks ago was packed with meetings, community groups, church events, and ministry opportunities on top of balancing my relationships and work life, I now find myself in the evenings and weekends with nowhere to go.

Something I feel that God is encouraging me to do in this time is to hit “refresh” on my life. I’ve been so busy for so long that I feel like I’m trying to run too many tabs on a limited wifi connection. Or as our pre-internet favorite fantasy writer put it, “I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can’t be right. I need a change, or something.”

Tolkien’s character Bilbo Baggins was feeling old. The people of today have been feeling busy. Whatever the reason, I agree with Mr. Baggins’ sentiment. I couldn’t keep going like that. Something needed to change.
I heard a friend say recently that we are so focused on the urgent that we push aside the important. We don’t find the time to do the things that really matter. But what about now that we have time?

This period of quarantine, lock down, or whatever state your community is in right now, is inconvenient, annoying, and even economically difficult. But it is also an opportunity for us to stop, refocus, and ask what are the important things that we have been missing.

For me it’s taking the time to sit, process my life, and listen to what God is saying to me. I too often just let life happen to me without deciphering how I feel about it or what God thinks. It’s spending time actually reading and studying the Bible. It’s focusing on the health of key relationships in my life and making sure they are true expressions of love and honoring to God.
So take this time of staying at home and really make the most of it. Catching up on streaming shows is part of relaxing and certainly has its place, but what are the really important things that you can focus on in this time that will make your life better? How can you connect deeper with God, improve yourself, and refresh your life?

I’ll close with another bit of sage advice from our good friend Tolkien:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”