For Such a Time as This

It took me a while to notice. I mean, the first week back at work was such a whirlwind with new protocols, last minute schedule changes and the typical business of a new school year, and I’ll admit, I was fairly inward-focused, drowning in all I needed to get done. In the midst of this, one of my former students came to drop off a book, and stayed. He honestly didn’t like my class much last year, but he wanted to talk to me, tell me about his new schedule. He was happy to be back. And it kept happening, students stopping by just to say “Hi” and catch up a bit, some I hadn’t seen in a year.

It took only one day since the students had returned to the building, one day of staring at masked faces grasping at any semblance of normal life, and I had an epiphany-people are struggling.  They are lonely, insecure, looking.  Looking for direction in an uncertain world where everything they have known has changed, and any plan can be cancelled on a moment’s notice.  And I felt a wave of responsibility.  While I am wallowing in self-pity while trying to adjust to a “new normal”, I am missing maybe the most opportunity I’ve had in years to be salt and light. 

While we were all filling our lives to the hilt with work, sports, activities, vacations, even church, society could easily turn a blind eye to the things of God.  But we have entered a new era, an era where our activity-packed lives can no longer fill the void, and people are looking.  Now more than ever, believers must heed this advice from Colossians 4 to “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Colossians 4: 5-6). 

I’ll admit, I have been failing miserably, but my prayer is that I won’t be side-tracked by “civilian affairs”.  I pray that instead of fear, I will display faith in God’s sovereign plan; instead of anger, I will display a peace which “surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7); instead of hate, I will display love remembering that my enemy isn’t of “flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12), despite what the political ads say.  For, in a time of unrest and uncertainty, it is more important than ever that I embrace 2 Timothy 2 which states, “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him” (2 Timothy 2:4).  For while the COVID era may seem a burden, it is definitely an opportunity.  It is a distinct possibility that much of my spiritual preparation is “for such a time as this”.  Lord, help me remember.