quarantined me
The whole world is on a sickbed right now. I’m praying for a healing, but not a return to life as usual. In many ways I am not desiring my old normal…and not just because as an introvert I have more time to myself. There is a lot that I miss about my former life. I miss the kisses of my grandchildren, the intimacy of good friends, especially those who live far away. I miss dining out and traveling.
However, I have also seen the value of stepping away…away from the frantic pace of life, away from a carelessness about how I spend my time and a callousness toward any life outside of my own. I’ve had time to engage with issues like racial injustice in a deeper way: to read books and papers and listen to podcasts and TED talks. And while it is my inclination to jump in and try to rectify a situation with a big commitment, I’ve been forced by quarantine to wait and study and listen. And listening is never a bad thing. James 1:19 says, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”
Business entrepreneur Terry Looper offers a process for finding direction in his book “Sacred Pace.” Before any big decision he suggests four steps:
- Consult with your friend Jesus
- Gather the facts
- Watch for circumstances
- Get neutral
Getting neutral involves taking the time to wait for your desires to align with God’s, to be content with any of the options placed before you and moving forward only when you have gotten yourself out of the way. This quarantine season is all about waiting!
For me, quarantine has been like a silent retreat—a time to pull away and look from a new perspective—like time spent in the air and seeing the world from 30,000 feet in a cabin with a cadre of strangers. It’s been a time to reshuffle and reset commitments. And it is good to approach it in this way, because I am not planning to plunge back in with both feet for a long time. I am old-ish, and like the others in my demographic, oh, so cautious.
But when the dust settles, I will be looking for the green light and for the direction markers for which lane to take to reenter the flow of traffic. I will seek God’s movement and put my boat into the water to paddle along in the same direction…not upstream, futile effort wasted. It is not enough to clean house; we must fill our houses with justice and mercy and equality and dignity. I want to be part of this refilling, so that I may one day see God not only in the silence but in the busyness of my days.
Love, Liz
“The endless cycle of idea and action
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness,
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence,
Knowledge of words,
And ignorance of the Word.” T.S. Eliot
