by Blake
Katie and I flew to the US with our kids about a month ago, just before the world totally changed. Within a week of landing in Texas, the whole city of Austin, where we were visiting Katie’s brother, was shut down. Schools, restaurants, bars, cafes, offices and the like across the city were suddenly shut with everyone in the city told to stay indoors and self-isolate. Then the surrounding counties started following suit, as was the case right across America.
If social media is anything to go by, it seems like we are all struggling with various aspects of being housebound since the global lockdowns began. I’ve seen lots of memes being made on things like:
The horrors of parenting young kids while trying to work from home
Call-outs for the introverts who are supposedly in heavenly bliss right now to remember to support their extroverted friends.
There’s been all sorts of pictures of back yards being converted into gymnasiums and other multipurpose areas for those that are fortunate to have a backyard.
Lots and lots of memes about people consuming alcohol as a form of escape, or to numb the pain of staying at home.
Within a week of landing we were contacted by the Australian Government telling us we either needed to return home immediately or face being in the US for an undefined period of time. We chose to stay as we’d come here to give our kids precious extended time to bond with Katie’s family, to visit some of Katie’s best friends who she hasn’t seen in years and to see a terminally ill cousin. Suddenly we had to make a very major decision not knowing who we’d actually be able to even visit, how long this could last, how laws would change around my 90-day visa and weighing up the safety and health of our own kids.
While it’s been a difficult decision, and we now feel very blessed to be spending so much of this period with our US family, there are still really hard moments when we question whether there was any right answer. Like when my grandmother passed away back in Australia ten days ago and we had to watch the funeral on the iPad, unable to give my grieving mum a hug at the passing of her own mother. Some things are just hard right now. We are all in situations where we are missing out special moments or milestones. It’s a really difficult feeling, like our futures are out of our control.
I know everyone is going through their own stresses as we deal with this change to our world. We personally know of people who have lost jobs or been forced to take significant pay cuts as businesses scramble to deal with the impacts of the virus. We know people that have even contracted COVID-19, as well as others with medical conditions that fear for their life should they get it. We know that even storing food to be in lockdown is not an affordable option for many and we’ve all seen on the news how the stress of suffering the indignity of being without something as simple toilet paper is bringing people to breaking point.
I am currently reading a book that my father-in-law gave me for Christmas: Streams of Living Water by Richard Foster. At the same time as making decisions about whether we should go home, I read a passage in this book that reflected on how Jesus withdrew from the world at times throughout his life to pray and spend time with God. Reading this made me stop and realise that in all my stresses, I was yet to actually spend proper time in prayer and give it all to God.
Funnily enough, as God often does, the very next day while looking at Instagram I saw a post from an American guy named Tim Tebow, an ex-NFL and baseball player who is also a Christian, preaching about the same concept and verses that I had just read about in my book - about Jesus withdrawing from the world to pray in Matthew 14. Sure it could have been a coincidence, but I do think it was a divine coincidence that God was using to remind me to isolate, pray and give my burdens over to Him. I had been carrying all my stresses on my own shoulders, trying to work out the answers myself. I had been too wrapped up in my own worries to even think about giving my stresses to God. I was relying on my own intellect and judgement to figure things out rather than giving my anxieties to Him. As a result, I was even starting to become short and snappy at my family around me - the ones that I was stressing about trying to protect. I completely forgot about Philippians 4:4-7 which says,
‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’
I wonder how many of us have also been too caught up in the stress of adjusting to this new state of isolation that we have forgotten to stop and give our worries to Him? I also wonder how many of you are like me, always desiring a better prayer life but never finding the time in our busy schedule to properly pray and spend time with God? I think this was the bigger lesson that God was also trying to teach me: to not just pray, but to see the blessing in this current period of isolation.
There is blessing in this isolation
When reading those passages about Jesus seeking isolation, I realised that while many of us are struggling with isolation right now, Jesus actually did this frequently. Jesus didn’t simply withdraw just to have some introverted time alone - He withdrew to spend time with God, to pray, to be spiritually and physically recharged, and to seek the will of God to direct Him in His ministry. It was a chance to stop, seek God and listen to Him away from the distraction of this world. He wasn’t by himself in isolation - He was with God.
Before Jesus begins His ministry, after being baptised by John the Baptist, it says in Mathew 4:1,
‘Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.’
Jesus then fasted in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. Fasting not only involves abstaining from things like food or water, but it involves intense and consistent prayer. Jesus, led by the Spirit, went into intense isolation for 40 days, spending the time devoted in prayer to prepare Himself for His ministry and life ahead.
Seeking isolation to be with God is something He continued doing throughout His ministry. In Matthew 14, Jesus learns of the beheading of His cousin and friend, John the Baptist. Jesus’ response to this news is written in verse 13:
‘When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.’
In this instance, despite His efforts, it seems that Jesus didn’t get the time to pray, as verse 13 and 14 go on to say,
‘Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.’
In this instance, God used Jesus’ intent to pray to guide Him to the place where He would perform one of the most famous miracles in the new testament - the feeding of the five thousand. Even in Jesus’ state of grief, by seeking God, God helped Him to have compassion for others and to focus on their needs rather than His own state of distress and grief.
Immediately after feeding the five thousand, Jesus continued to seek that period of isolation to grieve and be with God. In verse 22 it says,
‘Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.’
Here Jesus at least gets a few hours with God before He saw His disciples in distress on the lake, where He performed another famous miracle by walking on water to reach them. In fact there’s many instances where Jesus voluntarily goes into isolation to pray. In Luke 5:16, Luke writes that ‘Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.’
I wonder when the last time was that you stopped and withdrew from the world to pray? Is it something that you have wanted to do but always struggled to find the time or have the ability to actually withdraw from the world? I can honestly say that in my case, it has been years. Even at our old church in Sydney, every year we had a week of fasting, but of course I could never simply withdraw for the week to pray. The week continued as normal and my prayer time often ended up being diminished to the time commuting on the bus while being distracted by my phone. Even if I did find some time to be alone late at night to pray, I was so out of practice that I still struggled with how to pray for more than five minutes, let alone without starting to fall asleep.
But the everyday events that have previously made it difficult to spend time in prayer have now been taken away. Our schedules have been tipped on their head and suddenly we have this isolation that never seemed possible. Many of us have the best opportunity to imitate Jesus than we have had in a very long time. While this still looks different for everyone, let’s use this time of no commuting, no extra-curricular activities and no social engagements - this forced isolation - to spend time in prayer with Jesus.
I know there’s still challenges, especially for those caring for young kids or the sick or elderly, but if we can’t find time to isolate with God now, then I dare say it’s probably not our schedules that need addressing, but perhaps our own discipline and desire to use this time to pray to God and give our anxieties to Him.
So there is blessing in this isolation. The isolation has been given to us. It’s now up to us to choose how we are going to use it - whether we spend it by ourselves, relying on ourselves, or whether we spend it drawing near to God.
God is with us in our isolation
Isolation can feel lonely. Whether we live alone, with flatmates or with family, whether we are at home or stuck overseas – losing our ability to venture outdoors and our freedom to meet with friends and church can be a very lonely feeling.
In Romans 8:38-39, Paul writes,
’For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
Not even our current isolation, or coronavirus itself, can separate us from the love of Christ. And the love that Paul refers to includes the fact that Jesus wants to walk with you through this crisis and to ease your burdens and anxieties. You may be anxious about your employment over the coming months, or your next paycheck. Perhaps you are anxious about how long the food in your cupboard will last, or what will happen if (or when) you or a loved one get the virus. Jesus wants to join you in this isolation so you can give all your burdens to Him.
In Jesus’ day, animals like oxen were used to plow the fields. A wooden beam called a yoke went across the ox’s neck which was attached to a plow or a cart which the animal pulled. The yoke was a symbol for oppression or for a burden, and is often referred to in the Bible as a metaphor for the burden we feel when we carry our own stresses and anxieties on our own shoulders.
Jesus knows the burdens we are carrying today when He says,
‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ Matthew 11:28-30
During the first couple of weeks of our trip, even at the beginning of our isolation, I was so focused on my stresses that I forgot to pray, or at least in any meaningful sort of way. I was too busy adjusting to this new way of life, or even just spending copious amounts of time on my phone following the news or just killing time on Facebook that days and weeks went by before I started sending time with God. I was doing isolation on my own and feeling the weight, anxiety and depression of carrying my own burdens. When I finally stopped and prayed, I felt a weight off my shoulders. It felt so good to start trusting in God to care for my family, and me, instead of trying to do it on my own.
So let’s not do isolation alone. Let’s ask God to walk with us each day, spend time with Him and learn what it means to ‘not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.’ ( Deuteronomy 8:3).
There is opportunity for the Church in our isolation.
Just as Jesus had compassion for the crowds who flocked to see Him while He was trying to find isolation to mourn the death of John the Baptist, I believe God will also give us compassion and many opportunities to serve Him if we keep seeking Him in our own isolation.
The church’s reputation and standing in society has copped a battering over recent years. Since social issues like the referendum on marriage, the church has been painted as being out of touch, full of bigots and hateful people that don’t know what ‘love’ is. The flood of paedophilia cases against the various church leaders has further damaged the reputation of churches in general. During all this negative public discourse, I think a lot of Christians have been afraid to speak up and identify as a believer in Christ. Claiming to be a Christian today is much harder than it was only ten years ago, and often leads to incorrect assumptions that we are therefore bigots, hate the LGBTI community and don’t believe in science or climate change.
But what if through COVID-19, the church once again became known for how it loves, serves and cares for the community? And not just our church community, but for the broader community. What if we became known for being a community that not only preached hope, but brought hope to those in need? What if we were prepared to show compassion to our neighbours and be willing for God to perform miracles through us as a church to feed the masses and proclaim God’s kingdom?
I believe that this is an incredible time to be a Christian. We are at a crossroad where we can either hold out until this is all over to return to life as normal, or to choose to see this isolation as an opportunity for God to transform how we follow Him and to teach us how to truly build His kingdom here on earth.
So as we go about our lives in isolation this week, let’s:
Stop and reflect on the blessing it is right now to be in isolation.
Remember that God is with us in our isolation.
Ask God for compassion and seek opportunities to serve and bring God’s love into this period. We may need to ask God to help us be creative, but let’s ask Him to help us fulfil the greatest commandment of loving God with all our heart, soul and mind, and loving our neighbour as ourselves- even from within the four walls of our homes.
