If you are reading this, that means, you are one of the people who have made it to or past the Corona age. The world is a zombie movie on lockdown, only the virus does not come hunting for you but creeps on you slowly through a touch or a cough. Or lingers in certain places where you might visit to inhabit your body. Sounds scary right?
To cope with the boredom and escape the feeling of isolation, the world looks on to the Risen Saviour? Uh, oh, no unfortunately, we seek solace on binge-shows and excessive social media viewing. But, amidst all this, deep inside many of our hearts, we know that the end is near. What we have heard for so long from the preachers in our churches is happening. It’s like watching the book you read being acted out in a movie, only, it’s even worse than what we’d read or heard because there’s more deaths than you can count. The end is near and deep inside, some of us are afraid that we are not ready.
It’s easy to live in de-nial, do what we wanna, and defend ourselves saying ‘Hey its a difficult time, and this is how I am coping with it, so just let it be.” But, then again, ask yourself – is that lifestyle giving you peace? The true inner peace that emits joy and love. A peace that “feareth not death”? I guess the answer would be ‘Nah.’ Because I’ve been there many, many times.
Personally, I’ve been having a rut trying to reach the next level in my spiritual journey with the endless hours of entertainment and infotainment available on my hands. For a short period after the lockdown, and Corona hit millions in days, I felt the end near, and started worrying but felt helpless because I was scared but didnt’ know how to attain the spiritual height that I needed.
These are some of the things I have been trying to practise and hopefully, they come in handy for you in some way.
First off, for me, I have found that the key to a good spiritual life is – one thing we have a lot but just cannot handle well – time management. Once we learn to manage time and divide our work hours, devotional hours and family hours, it gets a lot easier.
See, the thing is, we cannot wake up, scroll through Whatsapp for the latest news and memes, then have breakfast and netflix and chill through most of the day, or maybe work until you can netflix and chill, get busy with whatever we are doing with our kids or chores, pray and read the Bible for like 15 minutes somewhere in between and expect that somehow, we will reach new spiritual heights.
Experts have suggested that to adjust to the Coronavirus pandemic, everyone needs to practise, ‘behavioural change’, the same goes for our spiritual life.
- End the night early
A lot of people would say, start the morning right, and that’s true but to start the morning right, we have to end the night early. Get a good sleep so you can have a fresh mind to commune with God. This is something I struggle with daily. See you cannot stay up till 1 looking at memes and wake early the next morning hoping to have spiritual elevation. Set a time to complete all your tasks at night also, leaving time for devotion before you sleep.
2. Routine, routine, routine
A routine is everything, it’s something my mother made us practise as kids and has been effective till today. Set a routine to follow for the day, you might not follow the whole routine, but it gives you a sense of order to atleast follow a few. This year, I came up with a routine to follow for everyday of the year and put it up on my wall in February. But work schedules and appointments vary everyday so it was impossible to follow it. What I’ve found is, it’s best to rough out a routine for the next day before you sleep at night because you probably have an idea of all the things you need to do the next day, by that time. Keeping a routine helps our spiritual life because we can make sure we are not wasting our time on unnecessary things and also sticking to a devotional session period without having to worry about time constraints. A lot of times when I’m reading the Bible, I find that I think about all the things I have to do through the day amidst the scriptures. When you have a routine, you know when you will do what and it leaves your mind open for a complete concentration on your devotion.
3. It’s not all about the food
If you know me, food is the key to my happiness. And that’s okay, I guess but it’s not okay to indulge in our appetites to a point where we destroy our body because that is a major conflict to spiritual growth and for overall health. Ellen G White suggests fasting to gain spiritual growth. In Counsels on Diet and Foods, she writes, “Now and onward till the close of time the people of God should be more earnest, more wide-awake, not trusting in their own wisdom, but in the wisdom of their leader. They should set aside days for fasting and prayer.” If ever there was a magic potion that could uplift one’s spiritual journey, from what I’ve found would be – fasting and prayer. Having control over one’s diet, you will find, also helps you practise self control for the other aspects of life.
After reading of the necessity to set aside time for fasting and prayer, I have started scheduling two periods in a week for fasting and prayer, and these are the times, where I get to have a really close view of Jesus love which prepares me for whatever I have to face. And man, Jesus loves me so much, I’d be a fool not to feel his love. Ignoring Jesus is like the perfect love story where the Prince is totally in love with you and legit gave His life for you but you missed out on enjoying a happily ever after in lovely bliss, because, you didnt spare time to know Him. Once you get to know Him, you’ll find that all this fuss is more than just about being in heaven, or having a close view of the stars. You might find new interest in Him when you start fearing the fiery flames of hell. But once you know Him for real, you will find that its His love, His love that will change the way you look at the world. That will change you.
hey there Delilah 