Those are two words I’m hearing a lot lately. They’re fitting for these days we’ve been walking through since a tiny virus grew to mammoth proportions and crushed normalcy under its weight. It feels as if everything in our world has changed over the last several months. And as a result of all the changes, all the people are feeling all the feelings. And they all want us to know. Life can be more than a little overwhelming right now. Social Media has become a battle zone as voices rise to carry over one another. 

I don’t know about you, but I am a planner.
​

• I like to get a fresh calendar at the start of the year and plan out how I think things should go.
• I like lists to keep my tasks for the week ahead properly organized.
• Even each day, I like to plan when I will do certain things based on the weather.

Some of you might be thinking I need an intervention due to my excessive planning!

In a line of expressionless, masked faces spaced six feet apart, people of all ages, colors, backgrounds, and ethnicities wait. They wait to walk into stores where they will cringe at touching what other fingers have touched and leave quickly to sanitize their hands and stay home where it is safe from:
 

• Germs. 
• Violence and riots. 
• Racial tension. ​ 

Voices, voices, voices everywhere. News reports, Facebook feeds, tweets, and any other variety of media seem to be winning the day. Even if they tend to differ in opinion or viewpoint they are coming in loud and in surround sound. I find myself trying to avoid all of it, but then wanting to listen because I have a stake in every bit of the headlines facing our culture. But where can my voice have a platform? Where can the things that matter to me and most importantly the truth of God’s Word find a way to be heard?

This was a question that came out of my frustration for our current climate. Discouraged and disenfranchised, I found myself clouded by a sense of hopelessness. As I took my evening walk, I was contemplating many different solutions to my dilemma when a verse that came across my audio Bible app shed some light on my darkened perspective.

​Thank God we don’t have time machines! 

I don’t know about you, but if God had allowed some scientist out there in the world to invent a time machine, I would probably spend the majority of my time inside it, rewinding to countless scenes in my life that I would greatly love to “do over.” 

And that’s why the God who exists outside of time and space has seen fit to make us humans here on earth live a very chronological existence. 

This summer has taken on a strange tone and mood for me. After being home for several months as a result of the COVID pandemic, the normal school year detox and relaxing that would take place has been given a head start. Relaxing on the porch with a cup of coffee clad in my comfy t-shirt and yoga pants has been the norm for months. I have enjoyed soaking up all the downtime and letting the non-essential details of life take a back seat. So much good in our family has come out of this time, but there is one thing that can never be granted a lackluster determination. Relaxed living can’t mean relaxed parenting.

The year was 2014. Every morning I dreaded getting out of bed to start another day. It was a hard year to say the least. I really needed to see the Lord work in a special way. I determined to begin the year by asking God for miracles, and I started a list in my journal for those miracles. Day after day passed with weariness, but my miracle list began to grow. If I were to show you that list today, you would think 2014 was the best year of my life!

Being a Christian brings with it many blessings, but life, even the Christian life, is full of challenges. Moving forward in God’s ways and in God’s work takes intentionality and effort.