A Time for Dreams & Change

Life in the world has changed dramatically in this year of our Lord, 2020. I guess that is just cliché now. We have been through this over and over. I know. But the novelty of it all is yet to wear off! When I run my mind through the many things that have changed in my own life, my very mundane and regular life, I wonder how those with previously interesting and prominent lives might feel. It is just so awesome that nobody but God has a good understanding of what is happening and what is yet to happen.

I was having a discussion with a friend a few days ago and he said he realized that people have unconsciously put an end date to the pandemic in their minds. So people are saying “Let this year pass. We have cancelled 2020. Once it is 2021, we will do everything we failed to do or found impossible to do before. In that way, we will compensate for the losses of 2020.” He went on to say that without thinking, they have assumed that once Covid-19 sees 2021 coming, it will pack its bags and flee.

We truly hope for that to happen. But will it? We don’t know for sure. Everything is still up in the air. But we have the assurance of God, that whether this journey is for forty days or forty months, He has us covered. His plans never fail and His love never ends.

So far, we have 2020 to thank for a new vocabulary. Words and phrases that existed only in dictionaries before now, are featuring in every day use and conversations. Talk of work at home, school online, lockdown, quarantine, face mask, face shield, sanitizer, isolation centre, social distancing etc.

I am so fascinated! But discussing this with my teenage daughter today, she told me that if I felt so fascinated, what did I expect my 88 year old mother to feel? So much has changed within her lifetime! A lot has happened in the last century. So much has changed that, if we were to look back, it would show how really different the world was in 1920. That was the year my father was born. He is deceased now, but he lived to a ripe old age. From the 1920s till date, penicillin was discovered, the first TV was invented, movies came on the scene, radio stations popped up, a whole lot of inventors and writers were born and made their mark over the years. In the last 100 years, we have had so many developments in all spheres of life, it is mind blowing.

Even in this pandemic, technology has played a major role in ensuring peopIe can still communicate, have parties, get married, name babies, have church services and prayer meetings, go to school, and generally catch up with each other and not feel so alone.

I have my dreams of a new reality. A new normal after the pandemic. A reality where what is happening now becomes history, a topic for storytelling to children born after this time. Sometimes it looks to me like the earth is just racing to accomplish all that needs to happen before the end of the world. Days run into days, months and years. Before you know it, another year has passed.

I look forward to new ways of living, working, and doing business. I look forward to new medical discoveries, inventions and innovations. Will these happen? I believe so. Necessity is the mother of invention. When people are unable to do the things they desire, they will always look for an ingenious solution.

As the world goes on, the Church must also be aware of the unfolding of God’s endtime agenda. As Christians, we must not be ignorant of a divine agenda in all of these events. Not to get involved in the thelogical arguments, but to prepare ourselves for what will unfold. We must ensure that the limited or non-existent physical church meetings does not take away from our connection with God. We must maintain our virtual connections with other believers. At the same time, we must fortify our connection with God. More than anything else, that is required in this season, as each believer becomes limited to their home church for physical fellowship. Our eyes must look up to the One Who holds our future.

This is the time for us to build ourselves up in faith, in prayer and in the study of the word. This is the time to dream with God. To explore the possibilities that He has put inside of us, to launch out with new things that He has given us. This is the time to fulfill dreams. This is the time to execute. Don’t wait for the pandemic to be over. Start preparing to move within the pandemic, and in spite of the pandemic. Start the journey as God leads you. Follow your God-given dreams. Don’t be held back.