Today’s Blog: Our New Normal?
TODAY’S PROVERB: The fear of Adonai is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:7, TLV
We’re back! Back at the beginning of a new month, filled with new revelations, fresh insights, and reminders of how to live a faithful, wise life. We’re also back to a more “normal” life. Many states are testing the waters for opening some businesses — lifting some of the restrictions implemented during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Should everything go back to normal?
I suppose before we answer that question, we might ask ourselves, what did we learn during this time of isolation? Here are a few things I’ve learned about:
- Hand washing. So, the Bible isn’t kidding. Washing our hands could save our lives. (Exodus 30) We’re going from cursory getting our hands wet to washing them clean. Let’s keep that habit.
- Human Contact. Being an introvert, isolation hasn’t been that difficult, but I do miss the purposeful connection over a cup of coffee. Leaning over our Bibles for study and discussion. Zoom works, but that moment when revelation happens and you want to touch hands, or give a quick hug, is nice.
- Corporate Worship. For some, it takes effort to walk into a building full of people and bustling activity. I thought the livestream services would be easier for people like me — and it is — but it lacks the corporate anointing that comes when we’re physically in the same room. “And do not neglect our own meetings, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another—and all the more so as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25, TLV)
- Cooperation/Working Together. “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds.” (Hebrew 10:24, TLV) Didn’t it feel good helping others. A pot of soup carefully passed to a sick neighbor. Sharing a roll or two of toilet paper. Running errands. I don’t want to get so busy I stop doing this.
- Listening. Perhaps you’ve found that quiet place where we can better hear our Heavenly Father. Or, maybe because of anxiety we’ve filled our days with things we do. Then there are families where kids are home and it’s difficult to hear anything. Find the place of quiet. Quiet, so you can hear our Father’s still small voice. (1 Kings 19) “But I have calmed and quieted my soul—like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.” (Psalm 131:2, TLV)
- Keeping Life Simple. I realized how much I overextend myself. It was nearly three weeks into isolation before I had completed obligations I had made the previous weeks. The only way I’ll know whether or not to commit to something is to get the LORD’s permission. How do I know that? Listening (see above). “. . .But we urge you, brethren, to keep progressing more and more and aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, just as we directed you—so you may behave properly toward outsiders and not have need of anything.” 1 Thessalonians 4:10b-12, TLV
The foundation of change . . .
These are just a few things I’ve learned. In these things, the fear of the LORD has to be the foundation of change. He can share secrets of the universe that will enable us to go through a pandemic and come away better for it. Which means, we can go through any challenge and be the better for it.
“The secret of Adonai is for those who fear Him. He makes His covenant known to them.”
KING DAVID, PSALM 25:14, TLV
As we enter the next “new normal” of our life, we can have more purpose, more freedom, more authority, more of whatever our Father wants for us. By incorporating the things we’ve learned, we can be more than what we were.
May we go on to our new normal with His purpose, my friends.
Proverbs 1:7 Tree of Life Version – TLV, #tlvbible, #tlvproverbs
