Have we forgotten some of the lessons learned during lockdown?

The world has opened up again and life is almost, at least in some areas, completely back to the normal we were used to. People can travel again, see family and friends, and of course resume their busy daily activities. It's wonderful, isn't it?

Well, I don't know.

While it's great to finally find community and connection, to move freely, I wonder if we're missing something as we slip back into our old routines.

What we learnededDuring the lockdown

As COVID-19 spread across the globe, it left devastation, loss and isolation in its wake. But it also resulted in worldwide humiliation and the realization that life is short and fragile.

As we were forced to remain isolated in our homes and feared losing our loved ones every day, we stopped taking a lot of things for granted. Some people eventually noticed how little they spoke or connected with their immediate family, others eventually realized that they had used work and the hustle and bustle of life to distract themselves from various personal issues.

For others, the confinement allowed them to finally get closer to God or to begin to seek him.

Faced with the very real threat of death, people allowed themselves to wonder what comes next and wonder if what they were pursuing was really that important or not.

With these questions came answers that, for some, resulted in adjustments in how they treated others, who they kept close and who they didn't, how they worked and lived life in general.

But now, as we go back a little further to the pre-COVID-19 lockdown situation, I wonder if all those lessons we learned have been forgotten.

Have we forgotten what we learned?

Now that we can safely resume our working days and interact with people, are we forgetting some of the things we learned while in isolation?

Are we forgetting the importance of loving each other? (Matthew 22:36-40)Do we forget how short life is and how quickly it can end? (Psalm 39:4)Are we forgetting to slow down and live? Do we forget the God who revealed himself to us in silence?

Or are we satisfied to go back? Are we happy to return to days filled with mindless activity? Stepping on the people we're supposed to love?

Unfortunately, I believe that is true for some. But that doesn't have to be true for you.

A moment of the Red Sea

Someone once reminded me that God only opened the Red Sea once. After Moses and the Israelites crossed, it was closed and has remained closed ever since. Now imagine that there was an Israelite who hesitated to cross and decided to wait until he felt more confident to cross. They would have been left behind and the opportunity to cross would never have presented itself again.

For some of us, the weather during lockdown was our Red Sea moment in that it gave us the opportunity to be still, to change things in our lives at a time physically, spiritually and emotionally, to pass into a new life.< /p>

But now that the time has come and it's unclear if we'll ever have another chance to be as still as we were during lockdown.

While we can't go back to such a time, and many wouldn't, we can still carry on with the lessons we learned at the time. Maybe you fell back into old habits, activities, and behaviors and forgot the new things you learned. But it's not too late to remember that.

Let's remember

Let's not wait for another tragedy to strike to remember how short life is and realize what really matters. Let's not wait for death to think where we will end up going.

Let's remember what we learned during confinement and that it encourages us to move forward differently. For our lives will be disrupted again when Jesus returns and our busy schedules, our pursuit of validation, will all mean nothing to Him. And some will wonder why they spent their lives chasing the wind when they could have chased him and his kingdom.

That person is not you.

While there is still time, remember the Lord your...