What Good Thing Could Come From This?

Can I just say that COVID-19 is really messing up some things? Like my plans. My husband and I had a much-needed weekend away planned. That came and went and is still much needed. My daughter is a senior this year. Her cap and gown are sitting in the packaging and she is making jokes about graduating online after all. We homeschooled for so long and she was looking forward to a graduation with her class. Her prom dress is hanging with the tags still on it in her room, and I’m trying to brainstorm a get together that fits in with the current restrictions on gatherings where we are. Our friends are trapped in country with expiring visas. Global workers who are stateside are having their much-needed fundraising functions cancelled. Schools are closing. Oh, the list goes on.

“The only good thing to come out of this are the memes,” I’ve muttered to my family.

But then I had to repent.

Because if I am honest, maybe things weren’t so perfect before all of this chaos started. I think of the things that have been missing from how we have been spending our time lately. There are so many programs and functions and options for us and, even though they are good things, we can still forget to pause and think of others. We can hit the ground running and our priorities never get a chance to be formed, let alone lived out. We forget to stop and spend time with the Lord or each other. But, with a move no one saw coming, the world’s hand is forced and time is a gift I have laid on my doorstep.

I have a moment. A moment where maybe I should be asking how God wants me to use this gift instead of what Netflix shows I should watch.

It’s honestly hard to write something in this crazy season. In all of my years of riding this globe, I have never seen things change so drastically and so quickly. This will be my second attempt at writing these words. The first draft written a week ago seems insensitive with all that has changed since I took my hands away from the keyboard. Who knows what will have changed by the time these words are actually published? Will we be craving more news of how the world is handling the virus or will we be so sick of it we want anything to distract us? Will we be gathering again in groups or feeling our way through virtual communities? I have no idea.

Today I received the final copy of the retreat guide to proof for the upcoming Velvet Ashes online retreat. As I read through the words and the teachings, I saw with new eyes the places God directed us to take the retreat this year. I was humbled. My heart felt that feeling when you realize how God has been working through you with something, and you had no idea at the time.

Back in October, when God directed our team to the theme for this year’s retreat, I didn’t know that the world would be different.

When He asked me to lead us to “celebrate”, I didn’t know that we would all be mourning.

When He planned for us to dig into having joy no matter what, I thought we’d all be bringing our different hardships to the table. I didn’t know we would all have a common, unifying grief and fear.

But God did.

While there is so much I still don’t know…

Will this affect our finances?

Will our loved ones get sick?

Will families be separated?

How long will this last?

I can’t forget what I do know: the God who created this world is not absent from it. This is not the end. There is no end with Christ. I am only given permission to fear one thing, and it’s not the Coronavirus.

God, who celebrated at the creation of the world “as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy,” and who wore the pain of betrayal, the loneliness of God’s face turned away, and the deep marks in his body of this world’s brokenness — He is the only one who could possibly lead us to celebrate during this time.

I smile when I think back to our naïve planning for you all to retreat with us this year. I smile because now I see it was His hands gently planning and preparing a soft place for us to land during what He knew would be a sore season for the world. I feel the beginnings of hope and excitement to study and grow with the teaching that He knew we would need.

I hope these words, when they finally reach you, find you ready to celebrate and ready to see what God knew we would all need at this unprecedented time in our history.

Consider this your personal invitation to what God has been preparing for you. You can also participate in the Velvet Ashes Retreat, “Yet I Will Celebrate”. Whether you can safely party with a group or are celebrating with a personal retreat this year, we have saved a seat for you.

In the midst of messed-up plans—as I reprioritize, rearrange, or totally throw out any expectations for this year—maybe I’ll be surprised to find the memes weren’t the best thing to come out of this craziness after all.

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