1. Take to heart the brevity of life. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic reinstated in my consciousness how we are finite beings who have limited knowledge, understanding, and control in what will happen next. I remember it was in 2018 when I first embraced the idea of us as “leaving beings” coming from Moses’ prayer in Psalm 90; however, that notion slowly got subdued by many worries and fears. Indeed, a year of quarantine has resulted to a heightened awareness of our time here on earth, a greater appreciation of life as a gift from God who is infinite, and a continuous change of perspective in discerning, investing, and engaging in what truly matters.
“Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.”
– Psalm 90:12 (CSB)
2. Quarantine also helped me address and re-evaluate how I spend my time. Staying at home longer than usual brought in the need for assessment in some areas of my life. There are days I couldn’t serve my own family for I excessively spend my energy at work, and then end up feeling like a failure. So really know what your pursuit is. Decide on what is good and wise to do given life’s limited number of heartbeats. Exercise loving and responsible stewardship. It’s still a developing area in my case, but I am grateful that God keeps on leading me to reorganize my priorities and dreams, to line them up with His commands, and to yield to more fruitful investment of mental and emotional energy in accordance with His priorities and agenda.
“Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last“
C.T. Studd
3. As much as possible, always have a heart check. I couldn’t emphasize enough how quarantine scenarios exposed and unearthed a lot of things residing in my heart that generally go in contrary to what I profess – yes, surprisingly. Such testing of principles occur when I am surrounded by people who know me, when I am surrounded by people who don’t know me, and when it is as if no-one-knows-no-one-sees moment. It is crucial to keep this in mind: having convictions is one thing, standing firm in it is another. I am certainly not able to do the right things all the time, but the Right Thing to do is to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and empower us moment by moment.
4. Lay it down at the feet of Jesus before social media. I heard from a video how lockdown made us always connecting but not connected. Especially in the Philippines, social media has become each and every one’s platform to express, communicate, and propagate ideas and thoughts. Not only that, it went beyond being a mere space to a prevailing source, if not main. Looking back, when I was struggling in the first few weeks of the quarantine, I observed I kept on posting about my restlessness in my social media accounts, trying to find comfort and resolve in the online world. There were also days when I processed my emotions looking through and typing in and scrolling the screen, instead of looking at it through His lens first and bringing everything to His feet. I am learning that staying connected to the True Source is not enough – it has to be our primary connection. This way, we will be able to approach our circumstances in light of what the Scripture says, and in an attitude of authenticity and humility.
5. Be a woman of eternal value. I’d like to close this blog entry with an excerpt from a poem entitled, Ten things God won’t ask on that day:
- God won’t ask what kind of car you drove, He’ll ask how many people you gave a lift to who didn’t have any transportation.
- God won’t ask the square footage of your house, He’ll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.
- God won’t ask about the clothes you had in your wardrobe, but He’ll ask how many you helped to clothe.
- God won’t ask what your highest salary was, but He’ll ask if you compromised your testimony to obtain it.
- God won’t ask what your job title was, but He’ll ask whether you performed your job to the best of your ability.
- God won’t ask how many friends you had, He’ll ask how many people to whom you made sure you were a friend.
- God won’t ask in what neighbourhood you lived, He’ll ask how you treated and behaved with your neighbours.
- God won’t ask about the colour of your skin, He’ll ask about the quality and growth of your character.
- God won’t ask you how much of your time you used watching television, but He will ask how much you used caring for others.
Mariah Miranda 