How To Look At All That's Different, Differently
“The very things that bring comfort can keep us enslaved to the past and unable to move forward.”~Shelly Miller
Have you found yourself this year just wanting to go back? Back to normal. I don’t know exactly what that would be for me. Moments before the COVID shutdown in our home, I was sitting in a few months of transition out of a faith community we started and a position we had held in vocational ministry for twenty years. The normal that remained for us was hauling the kids to and from school, too many afternoon activities, dinners in the crockpot in hopes to catch a few moments together with toes under the table. Normal was me traveling to different cities sharing health and hope using my voice for truth and grace. Normal was my husband contemplating what was next amidst a culture of hustle, strive and a little more hustle. Normal was good. Mostly. It was highs and lows with a small side of comfort. When COVID hit, that’s all that changed in our house. Comfort. Comfort of the daily what to eat, what to wear, when to go and how to show up for the daily. Some had already been stripped, so COVID just did one final swoop to leave us completely bare.
This season is a wilderness for most. Not sure any of us would have actually volunteered to bravely bold 2020. I wonder if Moses would have known the wander he would walk when he said yes to God if he would agreed to his plan. Would he have agreed to perpetually linger in the unknown? “Take me back” was often the response of the Israelites every time they encountered another hardship, another disappointment another step into uncertainty. But what if the very things that bring comfort can keep us enslaved to the past and unable to move forward.
This is perspective. It’s one I’ve been reading about in the late Shelly Miller’s book, “Searching for Uncertainty. Finding God in the disruptions of life.”
If 2020 doesn’t define disruption, I don’t know what will. Shelly says, “the key to finding God in disruptions of life is intimacy and attentiveness.” It’s intentional choice to look at our circumstances and see another side—a different viewpoint–to gain perspective. That is what I am inviting you into over the next five days. I am going to challenge your perspective of 2020. Instead of simply seeing the obvious difficulties…look beyond them to what they have produced. My guess is that many of us have experienced Psalm 16:6 as the lines of our lives have fallen in pleasant places intersected with the lines that seem oddly out of place. That’s perspective.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
So here it is. A five day challenge to see the Significant moments and people who have intersected in our life in the middle of this out of wack year we are all experiencing.
Over the next 5 days, I’m going to share a graphic in my story for you to share, tagging the 3 people and things that have made your life significant this year. It’s going to be fun – are you ready?! #SignificantSisterhood
HOW IT WORKS
1) Write down 3 people + 3 things that made a significant difference in your life this year.
2) Screen shot the post from my story, add your answers and share to your story, tagging @jenjonesx4.
3) Do this daily for 5 days.
4) Watch your perspective change as you drop into gratitude and positivity. Find the light of God in this dark world.
Check out this video, join my free group and I’ll see you over on “the gram.”