Stay and Grow

Photo credts: https://www.agrocares.com/en/news/magnesium/

In this current contagious climate, it can be easy to become bored and stagnant in our current situations. It is easy to let ourselves slip into laziness as we lounge about our living rooms. After all, the quarantine keeps us intentionally closed off from the world. Alongside this lag in activity we can allow our spiritual lives to become lax if we are not careful. Our dull routines can run together, allowing us to fall behind on the duties that should regularly fill our time. It is important to keep active in this time of forced inactivity, both physically and spiritually. Thankfully, there are many ways to keep our spiritual lives safely proactive.

While churches may have temporarily shuttered their doors, there are still several ways to remain connected to the church body. Most churches are broadcasting their services onto their websites or social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube. Many of these even include premiere or live features that can create an active chat section, adding to a sense of community. Small groups can still meet over zoom or similar services. Personal connections can also persevere through similar services and other forms of one-to-one communication. These relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ help us to stay committed and encouraged in our spiritual lives. We have the chance to reach out and encourage them as well.

The quarantine can actually be an opportunity to strengthen one’s relationship with God. There are now fewer obligations to interrupt or get in the way of simply sitting down with God through His word or through prayer. After all, little strengthens a relationship more than simply spending time with the person. This also presents the opportunity to do what so many of us rarely do when we consider spending time with God, listening. Not just listening to Him through His word but listening to Him speak to us just as we speak to Him in prayer. Simply sitting with Him, whether He chooses for us to hear Him or not, can be a truly revelatory experience, but we must be quiet and still enough to allow that to happen. What better time to try it?! 

While the current quarantine conundrum can confound and concern us at times, it need not best us. By taking advantage of the opportunities we have to remain close with communities through communication and to grow even more so than we usually do, we can all make the best of our situations. May we later look back on this time and find that it was a blessing because we made the effort to stay and grow.

Romans 10:17

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Ryan Tack is 
Minister to Teens at
Generations of Grace in
Lebanon, TN