Taking charge of this quarantine

photo; unsplash.com

I happen to have started my home-quarantine experience one week before the President of the Republic of Uganda called for one nationally.

I slept and woke up, ate and slept, woke up and slept again. After I'd done that for about ten days, making it 3 days into the national quarantine, I realized that these movement restrictions were not about to end the following day, and that they were to become my new normal. So I had to figure out how to make it work for me, as opposed to just letting the days pass by. I would therefore love to share with you what is making this quarantine work in my favour, despite all the imaginable disadvantages at hand.

Disclaimer: Even though this post is addressing the positives in this quarantine situation, I pray that it doesn't at any point seem to make light of the chaos and suffering that have come as a result of this pandemic economically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, physically and all around.

As all of us await for life to get back to normal, I'm afraid I should say that life might not get back to 'normal' as we knew it before, because so far a lot has changed not only statistically but also internally/individually.

Please allow me to share the interesting experiences of my new normal:

The Holy Spirit loves us to be organized and energetic.

As I threw my body around for the first week, feeling lazy to wake up, wondering why I even had to wake up, what urgent activity was there for me to do, I remember the Holy Spirit telling me: wake up and dress up like your expecting a miracle.

"Woow!" I marveled.  "Just at the beginning of quarantine?!" In that very moment I learnt that the Holy Spirit doesn't actually enjoy us being all sloppy and driveless.

Life doesn't happen, you make it happen.

If all you do is sleep, eat and watch television throughout this one month or so of quarantine, waiting for life to happen, you will eventually get downcast, frustrated, mentally unhealthy and physically not so fit.

Truth be told, these times are really challenging; I don't know if it is similar to other parts of the world, because we here in Uganda are so accustomed to working from an outdoor kind of life, given that even online shopping is still quite new, let alone other online activities besides social Media.

As I am faced with a similar challenge everyday, I advise that you too go back to your personal vision, your personal definition of success, or your New Year's resolutions, look at them and think through what you can do right now. If success to you means being in good physical shape, as opposed to going to the gym, download a workout app. If it is career change or diversification, go ahead and take some online courses. You may also choose to concentrate on one or two resolutions and fully throw yourself at them during this period.

Your gifting is not for you. 

While we are sometimes tempted to feel proud because of the things we find ourselves extremely good at, when I come to think about it, now that our contact with other people is restricted, our giftings are not for us but for others.

It would be a little weird for a talented person: an artist, a speaker, musician, or an actor, to dream of being the best in their field by ministering to themselves, for example, drawing and hanging their own art pieces in their bedroom without letting anyone else see and appreciate the pieces. Also, most musicians would dream of singing in big stadiums filled with people, thus implying that their gifting is not for them to consume, otherwise they would be flourishing thereby right now during this quarantine.

Therefore, this quarantine has made me understand more practically that whatever I do well is not my own, it is for other people. My nice voice, for example is not my nice voice, it is God's tool to reach out to his people. Whatever requirements I request for before doing what I am good at need to reflect that my gifting is for others to consume.

Rest. And again I say, Rest.

From the creation story in the book of Genesis, we see that on the seventh day God rested; but I highly doubt that God rested just because He was very tired and really needed to rest. Rather, I think He only rested because He wanted to give us another view of His nature.

Quarantine has made me realize that I had allowed the devil to lie to me that resting is a sin. I found myself pulling together all sorts of activities to keep me occupied all the time, even when I deeply knew that I really needed to rest. (NOTE: Being over-occupied doesn't necessarily mean being productive).

Why are we usually trying so hard to fight rest? What exactly are we running from if we just allow some good time with ourselves? Seriously, when do you think you'll ever get the time to rest, and feel the air again like you can right now, yet we are still trying so hard not to rest?

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:4 

Every situation, especially the uncomfortable ones, have a tendency of bringing things out of us that we'd never know were in us. 

As social media has it, during this period, some parents have gotten to know that their child had started doing drugs, since the child cannot access the drugs now; many couples have realized how they had started growing apart, parents have now realized how much their children appreciate their quality time, youths have gotten the chance to feel the importance of the government among other things that this forced slow-down has revealed to us.

Not to forget, God's resting has nothing to do with entertaining laziness and idleness. 

 John 5:17 ... "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working."

This tells me that:

God works at a pace, 

He works at peace,

He does His work, not other people's work,

He accomplishes His work.

Therefore, let us try as much as we can to take charge of our quarantine time so that it works in our greatest favour .

Once again, it is such a lovely thing for you to come here and allow me share with you.

I thank you!