During the past decade or two we often heard that change is the order of the day and that a comfort zone is not a good place to dwell. Wave upon wave of new technology washed over us and we continually had to adapt to an ever changing world.
Yet, except for some of the very elderly who can still remember the days of the second world war, none of us have ever experienced such a level of uncertainty as now with the coronavirus and the economy virtually completely shutting down.
Who could have thought?
When we wished each other well for the year on January the first, who could have thought that all sport would be cancelled, even the Olympic Games, aeroplanes be grounded and almost everybody to either stop working, or work from home, and even stay at home for three weeks?
Working from home
I just wonder how effective people working from home can really be in a time such as this, because we all need to do business with other organisations and businesses.
Now if there are so many businesses completely shut down(lockdown), how effective can those be who are working from home?
You are busy preparing the final draft of an installation to be done at a factory, only to realise that they will also be closed for the next three weeks. So their closed doors will have a direct influence on your ability to work from home.
So much uncertainty during lockdown
The severity of the influence of the “lockdown” on the economy and on each one of us is yet to be seen. At present there is so much uncertainty that any predictions and planning is almost impossible with everybody just trying to survive this ordeal. No one knows exactly what life will be like once this is over.
I believe that new ways of doing things as well as new opportunities will arise out of this mayhem. With the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, people said that the world would never be the same again and similarly I believe the world will never be the same again;
all our predictions and securities have been shaken.
# Lessons from the Bible
We read in the Bible about Noah and his family who were “locked down”(lockdown) in the Ark for some time without knowing how long it would last. When they emerged from the Ark it was a different world than the one they previously lived in. So they had to start anew and we see that “Noah began to be a farmer and he planted a vineyard”, something we do not read about before then in the Bible. Seems like somehow he explored a new opportunity.
Also in Jeremiah 29 we see that after God’s people were taken into captivity in Babylon and great uncertainty abounded, that God, by the word of His prophet, told them to “Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters – that you may be increased there, and not diminished.” (Jer 29:5-6)
Shift your focus
I therefore believe that although at present the future may not look like anything to be excited about, that
we should try to shift our focus to what we’ll do after this difficult time;
in a world that perhaps may look somewhat different than before. In Jer 32:15 the Lord told His people: “Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land,” meaning their own land Israel.
Let us take this time of isolation to spend time at the Lord’s feet and hear His heart on this matter. Remember that God was not caught off-guard with what is happening now. He knows the future. In Isa 46:9-10 He declares “I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning …”.
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