Now That I Have Your Attention…Lesson Learned?
Proverbs 4:1,4b-7 read: “Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. Take hold of my words with all your heart: keep my commands and you will live. Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, though it cost all you have, get understanding.” The Word of God for the people of God…..
Yes, it’s been a full year in the wilderness. A whole year of doing things so differently: it’s been a full year of witnessing losses and sickness like never before; a full year of the economy suffering as a result of people literally not leaving their homes to do the things that we used to do. No or little air travel; empty restaurants and theatres; tourist attractions silent….the list goes on and on.
My sanctified imagination has me remembering being in a classroom. Picture a classroom full of students who are doing their own thing. They’re making a lot of noise, throwing pieces of paper at each other, getting out of their seats, sitting on the desks….you get the picture. Then suddenly, the teacher enters the room. The students, of course, act like the teacher didn’t enter the room, so the teacher finds it necessary to clap his or her hands loudly, or maybe even take a ruler to tap onto a desk. The teacher may then say: “Now that I have your attention…”
This pandemic has been the topic of conversation on everyone’s lips since late February, March of 2020. Now here we are in March of 2021. Some say that we’re on our way to the other side of this wilderness, and prayerfully, that’s true. However, I don’t believe that it’s time to say “Post Pandemic” just yet. Here’s the question that I’m posing today as I share my topic, I hear God saying: Now that I have your attention… my sub-topic: Lesson Learned? Let us pray…
By no stretch of the imagination am I suggesting that our God caused this pandemic. I want to make my belief clear based on what I believe the Holy Spirit has said to me. Only you know whether He’s speaking to you and what He might be saying. I believe that God has allowed this pandemic to occur to get our attention. After all, many of us were going about living our lives and giving the God who supplies all in our lives our “sloppy seconds”. When we claim to be so busy, even doing the things that appear to be “of God”, were we really giving God our best? Were we having conversation with Him as regularly as He was providing for us? Were we recognizing Him as the source? Is how we were living our lives before the pandemic measuring up to what God requires and is worthy of?
The scripture in 2 Chronicles 7:14 is one we all know by heart, and I believe that the body of Christ really has spent the last year confessing our sins, humbling ourselves before the Lord, turning from our wicked ways and seeking His face.…and I believe that God is hearing us, that He is beginning to heal the land. However, I’ve asked myself this: the people of Israel were in the wilderness for 40 years; we’ve been in the wilderness for one year, and everyone is fast-tracking their way back to ‘normalcy’. I might suggest: NOT SO FAST…Now that God has our attention, have we really learned our lesson? Where do we go from here?
Let us NOT put our new wine into our old wine skins! Let us not go back to ‘business as usual’, ‘cause the reality is that may be what brought us here in the first place; business as usual.
Let’s realize that God is truly doing a new thing, and that we need to continuously worship Him in spirit and in truth. We need to remain in our communication with God, we shouldn’t let up. We’ve gone back to our ‘First Love’; let us not lose our excitement and zeal for the things of God now. Some of us have been “chasing God”-pursuing being in His presence.….let’s continue the pursuit! Let’s remember, we are STILL in preparation for the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let’s stay in ‘ready’ formation.
The reality is that God has truly allowed me, allowed us, to see our way through this wilderness, some of us in better condition than when we entered it!---Lesson learned? AMEN