Recently a Discovery Community/Simple Church practitioner shared a story with me that I thought you needed to hear. So I asked her to write a guest post here at Called to the Journey. She desires to remain anonymous to protect her identity and the identity of her neighbors. – Terry
Guest Post
We moved into our neighborhood seven years ago with much anticipation about meeting our neighbors and seeing what God had in store. In the first few weeks, we knocked on doors to introduce ourselves and invite people into our home. We were available and enthusiastic.
The roadblock we ran into was that while we were beginning a new chapter in our life, our neighbors were not. Our neighbors were busy with the rhythms of their own lives, and making new relationships and commitments is hard when life is busy. Then we began filling up our own schedule with commitments and responsibilities, and spending time with neighbors was quickly sent to the back burner.
We prayed for our neighbors and enjoyed our chats when we ran into each other doing yard work or walking to the mailbox but it never developed beyond that.
Enter COVID
COVID swarmed into our lives like invading locusts. It consumed the normal rhythms of life and has left us calculating how to pick up what’s been destroyed and move forward. For many (myself included) it has come with a bounty of emotions from sadness, to anger, to depression, to fear.
But in the midst of this time where we as a culture are grieving our loss of control, a hope has dawned. In the midst of our fractured rhythms and our grief, we can’t be business as usual. As if arising from a fog, we have to look at our priorities, our commitments, and make evaluations. And one of the beautiful outcomes is that we begin to see the people in front of our faces.
For us, that has meant our neighbors. A few weeks ago our doorbell rang and our next-door neighbor wanted to know if I could talk with her. She was struggling and felt like God wanted her to come over for a visit. She is a Muslim, and I am a Christian. We sat outside and talked about life and anxiety and the Prince of Peace. Over the last several weeks, we have developed a relationship and a rhythm of being in each other’s lives. We have read the Bible, learned the names of each other’s children, and prayed together.
The encouragement in this is not that God has a perfect bow to place on top of COVID that will make it all okay. But rather, that in this melody that feels arduous and uncertain, He is creating something beautiful. And it is not because we, as believers, are beyond the realities and struggles of life, but because as we sit in them, we do so with hope. And this anchor gives us the ability to love when we don’t feel it and to serve, not out of perfection, but out of being present.
This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us. – Hebrews 6:19-20a (NLT)
The encouragement is that in these fractured rhythms of life, God is at work creating new rhythms. He is using His beloved bride to see and love a world in the midst of the hurt and to build something new and beautiful; to redeem the broken that He may be glorified and His creation be restored.
Wow, this is such a poignant story for me as we not only are dealing with all the same issues & emotions from Covid, but also from having to move to a new community during the chaos! I’ve mostly only made new relationships here so far via social media and what I hear over and over is “I just want to sit with someone and have a cup of coffee”… I don’t think the desire for that face to face – ness would be nearly as strong!! Loving how God works for our good even in our chaos and that “in these fractured rhythms of life, God is at work creating new rhythms.” Thank you for sharing!