Denise Whitfield
Director of Christian Education
Let’s Not Go Back to Normal
There is a sentiment that echoes all around us these days. It seems everyone has an anxious desire to return to normal—but I have become convinced that returning to normal is not God’s desire for us. He has something better in mind.
I believe the coronavirus experience passed through God’s hands before it was placed into our lives. And believing that to be so . . . I also believe that He has purposes He desires to accomplish in our individual lives, in our church, and in our nation. I would hate to think that we all journeyed through one of the most difficult wilderness experiences in our lives to arrive back at normal.
It made me think of the children of Israel, who in the midst of their wilderness journey, looked back to Egypt with longing, forgetting the reality of their enslavement there. In the wilderness and beyond was the opportunity to be delivered by the power of God; to see the manifestation of His presence and be led by Him; to know the abundance of His provision; to receive direct instruction; to be protected; and ultimately to walk into His Promise. And yet, because the wilderness was long, hard, and unfamiliar, the Israelites desired to return to normal—to slavery.
I fear that we might have a wilderness-walking, Israelite mindset. My heart is burdened to think that God would lead us into this COVID-19 wilderness and we would miss His divine purposes. I think we would do well to reexamine whether we really want to return to the “normal” living of the past. It looks like Egypt to me.
Maybe the land on the other side of this wilderness might include more children playing in their yards and riding bikes around the cul-de-sacs rather than being organized into traveling teams. This land might have more families choosing to use their dining room tables for eating frequent dinners and playing more games, together. Maybe in having to learn to make do with less during this COVID wilderness, we will, in the future, accumulate less and share more. We could decide we don’t need 24/7 access to all things. We might visit more with our neighbors whose names we now know. We could be more ready to help. It is possible there will be more spontaneous celebration of people and their God-given gifts. Perhaps worship will be less about form and style, and more about a shared faith in the God who took care of us and led us through.
God leads us into the wilderness to journey us to a better place. Let’s not settle for a return to normal when we have the chance to enter into newness. Let’s not return to Egypt.
“For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19