Welcome to the second week of Advent! Christmas is soon approaching. Did your blood pressure just go up? Unfortunately, for a lot of people, Advent is a time of anxiety and stress. We have so many things to plan, buy, and do. We can’t wait until this is all over so we can get back to our normal lives. Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah, I hear it every single day during the pandemic! When can everything just go back to normal?
Before Jesus Christ came into the world everything was normal. People were going about their lives and seemed fine with the status quo. Then Jesus came into the world and shook everything to it’s core and the world was changed for the better. We were going about our lives just fine until this pandemic hit and now everything is crazy out there. A lot of the “fun” has been taken out of normal fun things we used to do. We like to cling to the status quo sometimes because it is comfortable to us. However, it is not always good to go back to the way things were after a change.
I’m glad that Jesus’ followers didn’t wish everything would go back to normal after Jesus ascended. We should use the shakeups in our lives to become even better people than we were before. If you are the same person after a big life altering event, then something is wrong. A caterpillar builds a cocoon around itself and when it breaks out of the isolation, becomes a beautiful butterfly. If the caterpillar is the same after staying in the cocoon, then it has just wasted it’s time for no gain.
How social were we before social distancing? The world had become a heads down society of text messages and social media. Before the pandemic, were our priorities focused on the eternal or were we more concerned with indulging in the pleasures of the world? After masks, shutdowns, and social distancing goes away, I hope we can appreciate being around other people more in person. When we return to fun vacations, I hope we can remember that our lives can change in an instant and keep our sight on what is truly important. A lot of people used to say, “I have to go to church today.” Hopefully, more people will start saying, “I’m glad that I get the opportunity to go to church today.”
As we prepare our hearts and homes for the coming of Jesus this Christmas, let us reflect on how our lives have changed this past year. Use the good and the bad experiences we have had to change our lives for the better. May our new normals be better than the old.
