From Glory to Glory: Revisited

I'm in my 6th week of working from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many of you, I have had extra time to fill. I'm home almost all the time now, and I see things that I've been putting off and eventually do them. This afternoon, while cleaning a closet, I read some old journals. Wow.

I remembered writing about doing that very thing, and came tonight to the blog to look through my old posts. I found one where I had written about that in September 2018. I think it's good to remember the things God has brought me out of, as long as I don't get bogged down and quit moving forward. 

These days, we are all wondering what life will be like on the other side of this pandemic. Will we ever get back to normal? Do we need to get back to what we used to consider normal? 

Looking at this post from 2 1/2 years ago puts those worries and concerns in a new perspective. Ahhh, but we didn't know this was coming, you say. True, we didn't. But I want to insert parts of that post into this one and let's take a look at what was going on. 

(I will italicize the posts from the Sept. 2018 entry.)

One of the reasons I journal: Encouraging myself.

I want to remember the good things in my life, and I am thankful for how far God has brought me, even though I cringe at some of the things I thought God was saying to me. I really do know more who I am in Christ these days than I did in 2001. However, the main reason I have to write it all down is so that I don't forget the miraculous things God has done for me.

This is how I encourage myself in the Lord. In the dark times, when I feel like I have nothing to say that is blog-worthy, I can read and remember the times that God provided an absolute miracle for me and be encouraged. 

 My heart is a little lighter when I am reminded that God touched me in my prayer closet once many years ago when my heart was consumed with grief over a devastating loss and He healed my broken heart on the spot. I was still hurting for a while, but I had hope and was able to function again after that very real and miraculous encounter.

Can we talk about dark times? 
 

My 2018 self didn't have a clue that life as we have known it would all but shut down in 2020 because of a new virus with no cure or vaccine yet. But still, this is encouraging because it reminds me that God is taking care of me. What was devastating to me then might not be so bad if looked at through my new lens, now acquired by weeks of social-distancing to avoid coming into contact with an unseen enemy. But it was a huge giant in my path at the time, and God took care of it. If He helped me then, He will help me now.

More from the earlier entry:

I read about the times my children, grandchildren, and very dear friends who have become family to me were together and I am thankful they are in my life. We may be far apart geographically, but in our hearts we are next door neighbors. I truly believe that distance doesn't have to effect deep relationships of the heart. We can choose to hold those dear to us in our hearts whether we see them daily or once a year. It's just like no time has passed when we do see each other again, because God has connected our hearts.

Family. We have talked to each other so much more in the last 6 weeks!

There's one good thing that has come about due to the virus, and it needed to change: My children and grandchildren, who are spread out across three states, are all talking to each other and me, like we probably should have all along. We have had phone calls, texts, and FaceTimes with one another individually many times and two Zoom sessions where the entire family--all three of my children, my son- and daughter-in-law, both grandchildren, and me--were all in the same conversation! The miracle of modern technology let me have my whole family in my house at once via my laptop screen.

To be clear, it isn't that we "weren't speaking." We were just busy living our lives and never found the time to check in with each other. This has been a good change, and we hope to keep it up after life settles into some kind of normal environment, whatever that ends up being.

Finally, the following is still true. 
It could have been written tonight or 10 years ago. We are not staying the same. We are continually growing:

Reading tonight, I was reminded that in ten years I will most likely feel the same way about the journal entries I am writing this year as I did about the ones from a decade ago. I will snicker and roll my eyes and think "how spiritually immature I was!"

That's just the way it is, though. We are not staying the same; we who are in Christ are going from glory to glory:

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Cor. 3:17-18, Berean Study Bible 

Hang in there. God is working and HE will get us through this! 
<3 <3 <3

Hiding Behind a Mask

I went into the store yesterday, wearing a new face mask that a dear friend of mine made me. I had to go because I needed my blood pressure meds that I refill once a month. I didn't think of asking for a three month supply before all this COVID stuff started. I will definitely look into that.

I hadn't been inside this particular big box store since March 18 or so. I have been doing my shopping online, and getting pretty good at it. I noticed while I was there that a lot of people were wearing masks, which gave me some measure of relief. The experts say the masks generally don't protect the wearer unless they are the type they use in medical settings, but they protect others from us. Still, it makes me feel better to be wearing one, and they say it's better than not wearing one.

So, this is a fact of life now. I will be wearing a mask anytime I go out in public in the foreseeable future, and many of you will, too, I'm sure.

Even though hiding behind a mask gives me marginal protection, I will still do it. But there is one I hide behind who can give more than just a measure of protection: Jesus. To really be protected in the storms of life--and this is a storm if I ever saw one--we must hide in Him.

Psalm 91 is one of my all time favorite chapters in the Bible. It starts out:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 
I will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!"

I'm staying as close to Him as possible right now, because He is my hope. Farther down in verse 3 it says:

For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence.

I'd say we are dealing with a pestilence. Verses 5 & 6 give a promise:

You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day;
Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. 

Then in verse 9 it gets really good:

For you have made the Lord, my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent.

Yet another place where it says no pestilence or plague will come near us! That's good news. I looked up the word pestilence and it's "a fatal or epidemic disease."

There are three places in just Psalm 91 alone that say God will protect His own from disease. There are other places in His word as well.

Maybe you think I'm being overly simplistic, but I don't care. I'm taking MY GOD at His Word. 

I'm not writing this because I'm not afraid and so I'm telling you to not fear. No, I have my moments of being afraid, I assure you.  I'm writing to remind you to seek God when you're afraid. I still have moments of fear, and when I do, I know where to go; I run straight to my Father and remind Him (even though He didn't forget) that because I put my trust in Him and I dwell in His shadow, He promised me this. 

Sometimes I read it out loud. It increases my faith to hear the word of God. 

We are all in this together, a safe distance apart, of course. But there is One you do not have to stay 6 feet from. In fact, I'd say get as close as you can to God. He is the only safe place.

The end of Psalm 91 says:


"Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; 
I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.
He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
With a long life I will satisfy him and let him see My salvation."

Peace and love to you all, my friends.



 






 

Uncharted Territory

Hi, it's me, checking in. Still trying to stay positive here in the midst of a pandemic. Still hanging on to a shred of normalcy by getting up and getting dressed in regular clothes (most days, anyway) so I don't schlep around in my pjs every day and not even remember what day it is.

Uncharted territory. I've heard that so many times over the last 3 weeks. We are definitely in it, though. Turns out, March 13 was the last day of on campus school. So bizarre. It's like we went to bed in a normal world one night and woke up in the Twilight Zone.

So, school as we have known it, in a classroom of a school building, is over for this school year. We got the word today from the governor. Because our cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in our state, we will finish out the year with AMI (alternative means of instruction). Mostly online, supplemented with some printed materials that families without internet can use to get school work done.

I totally support his decision. It's really the wise thing to do. Still...

Never in my life have we faced something like this. Teachers that I work with are devastated. This is not how they wanted the school year to wind up. It's not how any of us wanted it to end.

I'm the bookkeeper in the school where I work, so I will have some work to do to finish up the financial aspects of the school year. I will probably find out in the next few days how I'm going to go about that. It's tricky when we have to social distance.

I'm used to being there all summer with very few others in the building since I'm a year round employee, but not like this. Not when I feel vulnerable and scared I'll get the virus if I'm not in my little house.

Yeah, I'm still a little stressed. How could you not be, just a little?

Over the last three weeks (just 3 weeks? it seems like 3 months!) things have changed so drastically. Because people in my age group do not need to be in public unless really necessary, I have developed a system for adding groceries to my online shopping cart as I realize I need something. When it's full enough, then the fun of getting a pick up time slot begins. This is no easy task in itself; there are never enough, and the times are gone quickly.

I have learned so many new things in this short time. Life is not simple anymore; I feel sometimes like I'm trying to outsmart zombies (I hate zombie movies!!!) instead of avoiding a virus. There are so many things I took for granted, but now I have a new set of skills.

I do all my grocery shopping online now. I haven't been inside a store in over 2 weeks. 

I have developed a system now for unloading the groceries after I pick them up. 

I have learned to not touch my face until I have everything I have brought into the house put away.  Groceries, mail, packages from deliveries all have to be processed before being put away.

After I have handled "possibly contaminated" items, I have learned how to wash my hands really really well. 

I go around daily with disinfectant spray, wiping doorknobs, light switches, and other surfaces that might be contaminated with COVID-19.

I could go on, but no need. I'm sure you are doing the same things every day.

I wrote about fear in my last post. I tried to encourage others with scriptures to help overcome it. It's been a tough few weeks, though. I'm taking my own advice, standing on the Word of God and trusting Him. It's not easy, though.

Everywhere I turn, news is interrupting my peace. I finally had to limit the number of times that I check the news in a days' time because it was letting fear overcome me.

Even with the fear cropping up sometimes, I am grateful that I have the option to hide in my house to stay safe. There are some who cannot do that. So I have to say that I am so thankful to all those in the medical profession, who daily walk into their jobs and face this monster virus every day. These people, in my mind, are the new superheroes. I pray for all of them daily.

This is now our world. For how long, we don't know. But I wonder if things will ever be "normal" again. 

*Deep breath.*

So, I just wanted to encourage you to "keep on keeping on," and they used to say in a previous decade of my life, probably way back there in the twentieth century somewhere.

We WILL get through this. God is still on His throne, and none of this took Him by surprise. We need to do what we know to do to stay safe, but ultimately it's up to God. We have to trust Him to take care of us.

I'm trusting Him, and even though I have my moments of being scared, I know He is taking care of me.

Hang in there. Stay safe. Trust in God. Pray for those who are on the front lines of this battle, fighting against this invisible enemy.

"Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust him. 

For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease."

                                                                                    Psalm 91:1-3