Is this real life?

If I had a bottle of hand sanitizer for every time I’ve asked myself this question over these past few months. It just doesn’t feel like real life. And yet, here we are. Everything is being shaken. Peace has turned to chaos. Security has been replaced with uncertainty. Race against race. We miss that familiar sense of “normalcy”. We miss life, as usual. Or do we?

It’s affecting all of us. The ugliness of this world we’ve worked so hard to shield our children from, they’re now witnessing up close. Our sense of control is quickly slipping away, as we scramble to find what’s left to hold on to. We’re living through what feels like something we’ve only read about in our history books. Except we can’t seem to get to that last page. It’s the never-ending story of loss, uncertainty, and fear. It’s not just something we can wake up from. Or is it?

The news is now capturing these events in real-time. We’re not even waiting for the reports anymore. The riots and looting are being live streamed straight to our living rooms. They’re reporting new and exciting ways to contract the COVID-19 virus, only to find out later they were wrong. Nobody seems to know what’s going on and it’s unnerving.  It’s like a train wreck we can’t seem to look away from. Or can we?

“If you can’t explain it to a 3-year-old, you don’t fully understand it yourself.”

I wrote my goals for 2020. Then 2020 wrote my goals for me. This whole experience has changed me and my view of what I thought was important. God has revealed things about myself I would have never even considered a problem in my “normal” life.

It’s been said, “If you can’t explain it to a 3-year-old, you don’t fully understand it yourself.” The incredibly difficult things I’ve had to try to explain to my children, has proven that to be painfully true. Some is a sincere lack of knowledge; some is blissful ignorance. Whether consciously or unconsciously, it’s caused an awakening in my soul. A heart-felt desire to do better. To be better. To dig deeper.

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”

 Hosea 4:6 KJV

I’ve been glued to my phone in anticipation of the latest news update – which inevitably evokes those familiar feelings of fear and anxiety I battled with throughout my childhood; except this time, it’s not irrational.  Then comes that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach followed by the stream of tears. Suddenly, I’m made painfully aware of how much of my time is spent focusing my attention on the problem and not the problem solver. I’m feeding on fear, while starving faith.

Ready or not, this is real life. And this should come as no surprise to us as believers. The harsh reality and the root cause of fear is my lack of knowledge of what the truth of God’s word says. If I’m being completely honest here, I allowed myself to believe “good” was good enough. It’s not. Had I been in daily communication with God, had I been reading my Bible as often as I’m checking the news, had I been meditating on His faithfulness instead of my problems… Faith would have been my default.

And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.

Luke 17:26

There has been a lot on my heart recently, as I am sure there has been on yours. The world is changing, and we must change with it. I’m afraid we’ve allowed our predictable lives and circumstances to lull us to sleep. What we’re witnessing externally is evidence of a war that has been raging internally. We’re on the brink of a paradigm shift and God is preparing His people. I know I am not the only one who He has been speaking to and reaching for on such a personal level. We’re about to walk into the battle of our lives and we must be wide awake and in-tune with the supernatural realm.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all, the stand. Stand therefore…

Ephesians 6:12-13

**I would strongly encourage you to read the rest of Ephesians 6.

Sometimes God uses a “dark room” to expose things in us.. Areas of spiritual weaknesses we would otherwise be unaware of. We get so focused on what’s happening around us, that we forget about what’s going on within us. Not only does this dark room experience expose the negative, but it allows time to develop the character necessary to become who we need to be in this hour. There’s a lot of real people, with real hurt, looking for real answers.

I don’t even know what we’re going to wake up to tomorrow, let alone when resolution will be made, but I know the One who does. The same One who spoke the world into existence. The same One who knows the end from the beginning. The same One who takes time to think about us.

 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord , thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”

Jeremiah 29:11 KJV

Jesus knew what his purpose was here on earth and He endured a whole lot of pain in order to get there. He knows what our purpose is here on Earth and it’s proving to involve some pain along the way. But why would we expect anything less?

We sing songs like “To Be Like Jesus” and ask ourselves questions such as “What would Jesus do”? The real question is: what did Jesus do? Let’s do that.

Sometimes God changes our circumstances. Sometimes He changes us in our circumstances.

I don’t know about you, but I hope I never go back to “normal”.