COVID-19 has caused varying degrees of turmoil in families over the country. One of my children is not sure they will have a job to go back to; another is busy trying to reinvent their sole trader company into another market. When we celebrated the New Year, this was not what we were expecting for 2020. Even in Level 3 many of us have more time on our hands than we used to. So what can be done with that spare time? Because it is easy to fritter it away with frivolous pastimes. As I have said to my children, we can focus on our loss, or we can look for opportunity. Our losses are very real and we cannot ignore them but we also can’t live forever in the place of loss, frustration, anger and fear. To do so will be seriously emotionally and mentally debilitating to you and those around you.
So where to from here? What can we gain from this unique period that we have just been through? What is in your hand right now? As the old saying goes, you only go by this way but once. Carpe diem let us seize the day! Look forward not backward to what will build life and hope for the future, that’s what God said to His people in exile (see Jeremiah 29:1-14). What have you wanted to learn about or learn to do? I don’t know about you but I am reading five different books at the minute, only one is fiction but the others are on all sorts of subjects that I am interested in. I pick them up and put them down as I have opportunity. It is interesting that the word disciple means learner and we are disciples, so let us learn. I am using this season to pray through, read and learn things that will help build the future of PK.
This does not mean it is a comfortable time for me, one of the areas that we at PK must expand in is online development. This is not my strength but I know that I have to overcome my fear of failure and just get on with it. So I have got online, learnt some new skills, shot video clips. I have learnt how to use Zoom as we are planning to run large groups online. You may not be comfortable where you are at either, but what are you able to do? If you lost your job at the moment what can you do? Where can you look for another job? Do you need to upskill; many institutions are offering short courses at the moment. Even if you haven’t lost your job; maybe you need to grow in some area, take a step forward. Google and YouTube can be great resources when used properly whilst in short term exile from our usual life.
If you are not going forward you are going backwards, we never stay still. So in the words of the Lord that He spoke to a group of exiles: “For I know the plans I have for you” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
What can you do? The choice is yours.
Let’s keep connecting with each other. The Promise Keepers Group on Facebook [here] is available for you to share your views and connect with other men across the country. This is the place where you can reach out for help; tell us how you are doing; or chat with the guys. If you want or need to chat, email me [here].
In the immortal words of Hill Street Blues “Let’s be careful out there!”
Blessings
Paul Monahan
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