This is a novel virus, something new for us as humans to contend with. The threat is very real and the ripple effects will be long term and devastating for many. Even though we are dealing with a new virus, there is nothing novel about our current spiritual condition.

Needy, fearful, uncertain about the future, acutely aware of our mortality, anxious, worried, purposeless, and bored…these are some of the emotions we are feeling in this moment.

After a week into being on lockdown, I realised that our family has been through something similar before. It’s not the same situation of course, but I recognised similarities in how I responded emotionally and spiritually. This goes back a few years before we planted Redeemer, a church in Chorlton, Manchester.

We require a visa to live in the UK and this process led us to being stuck in America for a little over a year (you can hear more about that story in this podcast about church planting). We had to move around often, had little purpose, and generally felt stuck…literally and metaphorically. We were uncertain about the future: will we be able to go back to our home? Will we be able to continue in planting a church? When will things get back to normal?

There was uncertainty without purpose. This was more difficult than moving from America to the UK, at least then we had purpose in our uncertainty.

For 13 months we moved an average of every two weeks, we spent nearly all our savings, and I was depressed. We felt lost…but we weren’t lost to God.

That was some years ago now and with time comes the clarity of seeing a bit more of what God was up to then. Here are some of the things I learned, and maybe some of this is what you are in the middle of learning now, too.

1. People will be generous. This is a call to grow in generosity and humility.
   As difficult as our time in the US was, there were some very generous people who helped us get through it. Sometimes it was practical generosity, other times generosity in spirit. For our family we got to see others grow in generosity. The role we played was to present our needs. In doing so, we grew as the needy humans that we are (aka in humility).
   

2. The church will advance. This is a call to grow in leadership.
   Even though I was living in another country, I helped plan an international church planting conference with two other people, gathering leaders throughout Europe together. I couldn’t be there in person, but I was still able to have purpose. For our yet-to-be-birthed church plant, there was a serious vacuum that called for others to take on leadership roles. Our team grew: they held monthly prayer meetings and people were moving into the neighbourhood. We saw creative and redemptive responses to a different and uncertain context—that context being the leader of the church not being in the same country as the church!
   

3. You will grow in prayer. This is a call to grow in being honest with Jesus.
   Or rather, I should say, this is an opportunity to grow in prayer. My prayer life has never been incredibly strong, but Jesus was working for me, as well as others, to grow in expectant prayer as well as in lament.
   

4. You will rarely know what God is up to in the moment. This is a call to grow in patience.
   For me, being in the moment meant feeling frustrated, depressed, annoyed, angry, sad, lonely…very lonely. But in all of this God was at work. And of course He was, how can we ever think that He isn’t beside us? Though He was working for my good, that doesn’t mean I’ll understand it all. I can believe that He’s 100% for me even if I don’t get exactly how that’s working in every detail of every day. To be patient is to rely on God, for His timing and in His way. This is really difficult for me, by the way, because I’d rather do things quickly and my way.
   

5. You will grow in a vision for His Kingdom. This is call to see God at work in all spaces.
   Living day to day, waiting for a visa, that is depressing. Only tuning in to coronavirus news, only accepting the day to day information that gets beamed into our eyes and eats, that is depressing and oppressive. And though that is our reality, that’s not what we get to set our eyes on. Our eyes are on the Lord, the “maker of heaven and earth” as in Psalm 121. We who follow Jesus have ears to hear Jesus’ words among the noise or the deafening silence. That means we don’t look first to a twitter feed or a news update for how our day is going to go. We look to Jesus. Jesus is not absent. He is working and He is doing something here.
   

Suffering well leads to a spiritual galvanisation. As we grow in humility, generosity, lament, patience, prayer, we get a stronger shell that allows us to endure. A galvanised iron railing won’t rust when it’s out in the rain, it’s protected. And so it is with all of us needy humans, needing protection.

Suffering well also leads to spiritual sensitivity. As we grow stronger we grow softer. Our hearts ache more for the things of God and we feel the longing of a world needing to be made right. We are drawn closer to the God who cares for us, loves us, and comforts us.

For a long time we bought modern comforts thinking they’d deliver control, but now we’ve found out we were only sold the illusion of control in the end. Let’s be able to look back at this time in 10 years and see how God walked with us, how He cared for us, how He lavished His love upon us. And in 10 years’ time, let’s not lament that we missed out on that.

Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear what you are doing during this time: in us, our church, and others who aren’t yet part of your church. Free us from the chains of our daily circumstances that we foolishly put back on ourselves. Jesus, you freed us. Father, you love us. Spirit, you empower us to live as we’re made to. Allow us to live out this freedom, love, and power, in a way that will glorify You. We know that is what makes us most alive. In Manchester as in heaven. Amen.