Daily Message from Wendy Barker
How often lately have we said, “I can hardly wait until things get back to normal!” Many of us share a strong urge to recapture our comfort zone of regular activities, social connections, and church and fellowship time together.
While Skyping together with my mother and sisters this past week, one of us voiced this very thought. As we talked, though, we began to question the concept of “back to normal”. Do we ever go back in life? If so, to where would we go back? My mother wasn’t too interested in exchanging hand-crank phones and party lines for the current opportunity to see her scattered daughters on Skype!
And what exactly is “normal”? Would those who are protesting discrimination based on race, colour, gender, or sexual orientation want to go back to what has been considered “normal” during their lifetimes?
A couple of years ago, I bought a cute card that says, “Normal is just a setting on a washing machine.” In thinking about it, I realized we are always moving forward — not backward — towards some new “normal”, even when it feels uncomfortable, or when it means leaving behind habits and customs we hold dear.
With faith and hope, we can adapt to changing conditions — even Covid-19 conditions — and look forward to finding new experiences and learnings in our onward journey, perhaps even helping to shape new “normals” as we go,
From Scripture:
Genesis 12:26 - “But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”
Well, we don’t expect to get turned to a pillar of salt if we look back, but we can find that we get rigid and stuck if we’re only wanting to live in the past.
Exodus 14:15 - “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.”
The way forward for them was through the Red Sea, and it looked like a hopeless path to nowhere — but God caused the seas to part and brought them through.
Isaiah 43:18-19 - “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Yes, we have hope that each day will bring a new and different “normal”, and we will be uplifted and sustained in this journey.
Prayer:
Creator and Sustainer of Life,
Grant us the courage and hope to face forward,
And to trust that we will be sustained on our life journey, even through situations where we see no way through.
Help us always to work towards a “normal” where we hold each other close in your love. Amen.