Ask me what my biggest challenge during these days has been and I have only one answer: connections.
I can handle more home time. I am a homebody. I love working from home. I love home-keeping activities. I will never complain about having more time with my husband at home. It’s my happy place.
BUT . . . it’s not enough. I need other faces and voices. I need other perspectives. I need other listeners. I need other connections.
Just when I was ready to take relationships deeper in my new world after our big move, the pandemic slapped my hand and told me, “Not now.”
Okay. I can wait a few months, I glibly thought. Ha-ha! The joke was on us, wasn’t it?
Now, over two years later, the question is: Why am I still waiting?
I know why, because the ways I want to address relationships and the ways the pandemic allows me to address relationships are at war and nobody’s calling a truce. However, I’m tired of waiting for normal to come back because I’m not sure it will. I’m ready to take relationships off hold and push play.
What will that look like?
Honestly, I’m not sure. I know it will take initiative—mine. And that’s where I struggle. And then I remember what I’ve been teaching in Bible Study, that even though a weakness will never become a strength, when we let God empower us there, in the weakness, we find a strength that our own initiative will never muster.
Where are you struggling and trying to make do, wait until, or just stay positive during these uncertain days? Maybe there’s an area where God is asking for baby steps from you, too. He never condones reckless or irresponsible behavior, but He doesn’t want us to stop kingdom-building, grace-reaching, heart-growing activities because of fear, insecurity, or just plain inertia. God believes in community and relationships. It’s where we share our witness and how we participate in Kingdom coming work.
So what’s my next right thing in this area? That’s the question Emily P. Freeman taught me to ask in her book The Next Right Thing. First, I must acknowledge where God has already cracked some doors.
So no more waiting. I’m ready to take my next step on a path I cannot map, outline, or put on a task list. I’m just ready to get on the other side of that door.
