Micah 7:7 - But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
We have reached the middle of our fifth week of Quarantine 2020. Hopefully, we have all been doing our part to flatten the curve and are staying as socially distant as possible. Even though for most of us, social distancing is the worst. Oh, what we would give to go back to the way things were just a few months ago! Unfortunately, we can’t. For now, our only option is to wait, and nobody enjoys waiting.
How many times have we wished for life to slow down? And, now that it has, it is one of the most stressful times any of us can remember. Right now, you are not just working from home; you’re trying to get work done at home in the midst of a crisis. Right now, you are not homeschooling your kids; you’re trying to facilitate your kids’ education at home in the midst of a crisis. And the worst part about all of this is that we don’t know when it all will end, and we can start reaching for normalcy.
It’s okay for the waiting to get to you, to feel annoyed, to feel stressed out, to feel lonely, or to feel any way that the quarantine has you feeling. Though rare for someone out there, quarantine is just what they needed to reframe or refocus their life and we can be happy for them. For the rest of us however, this is a huge interruption. There are places we wanted to go and things we wanted to do. But for now, we must wait.
And though it may feel distant, our hope is right here with us. I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. This past Sunday, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. The event that all of Christianity hinges on, the event that was foretold hundreds of years before it happened. The people of the Old Testament were told that their hope and salvation was coming, but for now, they must wait.
We don’t know how or when this whole quarantine thing will wrap up. We have to wait. However, waiting doesn’t mean we are without hope. We can still look forward and trust that there is something better coming than our present circumstance. Use your time in quarantine well, even if that means resting. Time enjoyed is never wasted. We are the people of hope. Reach out, share that hope with others, and use it for yourself.