currently, i’m writing this blog from sydney, australia. i’m heading into my 8th week of lockdown, with at least another 6 weeks of lockdown to go.  

personally, the lockdown seems so different to the first one i experienced in 2020. in 2020, i was living in a friends place, with company close by.  currently, i’m living completed isolated.  throughout the last few weeks, i’ve cried heaps, felt numb, lost, without hope… at times, i was even unrecognisable to myself.  

i remember thinking a few weeks ago…  as i was undergoing yet another covid extended lockdown (first one week, then extended to another week, and then another two, and another 4 weeks)… when is this pain going to end? 

there i was, trying to explain the impact of hearing the news of yet another 4 weeks minimum lockdown to a friend, living in another state of Australia… and as much as they were trying their best to understand and have compassion, i realised that they just didn’t. how could they?  they hadn’t been through severe extended lockdowns in 2020, or experiencing a lockdown longer than a few days long in 2021.  as much as they wanted to and tried their best to support me during this difficult time, what they offered in response wasn’t particularly helpful.

the current lockdown restrictions in Sydney, whilst experienced by everyone, has resulted in a variety of different impacts.  those living alone crave company; whilst others long for respite from the people they live with – for some silence from kids and a few minutes of space.  

as I read this, it made me realise how significant it is that Jesus came to earth, experiencing the things of this world.  it’s one thing to have a king or high priest is able to forgive, it’s completely another thing to have someone who truly understands the experiences we go through. He’s not just sitting up on some throne totally oblivious to the hurts, pains, disappointments of the world.  He gets us, He knows us. He intimately knows our needs, even more than we know ourselves.

it’s something I’m learning to do more of – to lament with God.  to cry to God, pour out my honest feelings with him… knowing nothing is too big or small for him.  i’m learning through this process that this reliance is exactly what he desires – for us to live our lives wholly dependant on him.   often, we can brush off the importance of grieving and lamenting well, and be quick to get over things and rush to get back to “normal”.  at least for me, it’s much more difficult to admit I need help, recognise the impact the situation has on my actions, be confronted by my sin… and to humbly go to him for help. 

today, wherever you find yourself, whether in joy or sorrow, in good times or in bad, may you know that we have a God who understands everything you’re going through.  your pains, your struggles, your worries, your joys, your pleasures.   i pray for my fellow friends particularly who are going through tough lockdown restrictions – may you lean on God through your loss and grief, may the fact that we have a faithful high priest who understands exactly what you’re going through bring you comfort and peace.  may you understand more of the Father’s heart through this experience, and be filled with greater compassion. 

A few months ago, I wrote about how a lounge spot cleaner’s work made me reflect on how we sometimes measure the success of our work by visible outcomes. 

This same cleaner came back again (yes, I seem to have a knack for spilling things on my couch!) and as he explained more of his work craft and how the chemicals he had applied to the couch would take time to do their work. 

He left with these words, “even when I’m not here, I’m working”.   Meant to be reassuring and to be applied to his work as a spot cleaner,  it made me think of our Heavenly Father, the first worker. 

In John 5:17, Jesus says that His Father is always at work, to this very day, and He too is working. 

There’s so much that we can’t see and the reassuring thing is that we have a God keeps His promises, is steadfast in His love, gracious and merciful and always wants the best for us.   

Even when it feels like God isn’t here, even when we can’t sense His presence, be assured that He is always beside us.  

Psalms 23:4 (TPT)

    Even when your path takes me through

    the valley of deepest darkness,

    fear will never conquer me, for you already have!

    Your authority is my strength and my peace.

    The comfort of your love takes away my fear.

    I’ll never be lonely, for you are near.

As I write this, I’ve just received news of a further extension of a covid lockdown in Sydney, Australia.  Living by myself, the lockdown this time has made me realise how much I need real human contact.       

Wherever you find yourself in today – whichever part of the world you are reading this from, may you cling to the promise that our merciful and loving Father is always by our side.     Today, whether you are facing a tough day at work, be it with the pressures of deadlines, or the stresses of home schooling your children, or dealing with a tough work colleague, may you sense God’s presence.  May you know that God is working for you, always wanting the best for you, in whatever situation you find yourself in today. 

He came in, lugging a huge steam cleaner.  I honestly felt doubtful, wondering if that small stain on my couch would ever come off. 

He moved my furniture, meticulously ensuring I had a towel near the suspecting stain, so the water wouldn’t destroy my rug underneath.  He set out to systematically apply product and then steam clean the area.  Ever so careful and attentive.  

When I asked him whether all the effort he put into cleaning it worked, he made a joke, saying it would be years before the couch would dry and only then would I know the result.  

I should have asked him whether he found that frustrating – doing all this work, and leaving client’s homes not knowing if any of his hard work resulted in a positive outcome. 

As he left, I pondered – isn’t a lot of work like that?  Like the teacher would spends late nights preparing and mulling over material they will teach their students the next day… only to have her class disrupted by some rowdy students.  Will what she did ever amount to anything significant and substantial in her students?  Only time will tell.  

And it’s not just the 3-4h I had to wait for the steam cleaning on the couch to fully dry, but years… and then, not even then perhaps.  My thoughts drifted back to think of the teachers who in hindsight had impacted me.  I still remember Ms Sim, my primary school maths teacher who was instrumental in my love of maths… which led me to pursue an engineering degree.

Do we do work only for the outcome?  How much does our attitude count towards doing “good work”? 

Back to the stain on my couch. 

Isn’t that a metaphor in life – we can’t always be sure all the stains will be removed by our work, or even if the few intense and concentrating minutes count for anything… if good work is to be measured by the outcome.

But, what if, by his presence and attitude to his work, he encouraged me to keep preserving.  To have the right attitude to work and to do it for the Lord, even if no one is looking… and he even cheered up my day by cracking a joke. 

In Colossians 3:23 it states, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”

“Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

In the book, The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, Darrell Cosden ponders more specifically what our work will be like,
“Our sanctified imaginations can only suggest what we think God’s promise to make all things new might mean…There will be, no doubt, some specific products of our work that through judgment will be transformed and incorporated into the “new physics” of the new creation.”

Prayer

Lord, thank you for our daily work and for the opportunity to partner with you in all that we do.  To work for you through all that we do, knowing that our work here on earth is not in vain.  May you remind us that our work here on earth counts in eternity. 

In Jesus name, 
Amen.  

“So… what are you doing next week?”  

“Hmmm, I don’t know.  It really depends on whether I have jury duty or not.”

To set the context, a few months ago, I had sensed a change in season and believed that God was leading me to a season to rest.  In obedience, I had made plans to take some time off work.  However, those plans were suddenly in disarray when I received an uninvited notification that I was selected to be part of compulsory jury duty for an 8 week court case.  To top things off, my jury duty was scheduled on exactly my last day of work!

I know God has a sense of humour, but as I started having the above re-occuring dialogue with multiple friends about my uncertain plans, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the passage in James 4:13-15.  

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

I think most of us might agree that 2020 might not turned out the way we might have expected.  However for me, being called for jury duty pushed it to a whole other level for me.  I realised God was really trying to teach me a key lesson and graciously arresting my attention.  I still haven’t arrived there yet, but I’m slowly learning that it is futile to be stubbornly fixated on my plans and refusing to be open to the direction and journey that my loving and gracious Heavenly Father wants to take me on.     

As I spent time meditating on those verses, it highlighted this illusion.  I don’t know about you, but I think majority of the time, we think our lives are in our own hands.  It’s easy to forget sometimes that I am NOT in control of my life, but God is.  Perhaps through these last 6 months during COVID-19, you might have experienced how quickly things can change, and how we are ultimately not in fully control of our own schedule.   

Please don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that it is wrong to plan.  I believe we need to be wise stewards with the resources and talents that He’s given us, including time.  However, I wonder how different my day would be if I was less fixated on completing the plans I had set out for each day, and instead been more open on seeking God’s presence and will throughout the day.   

I love this quote by C.S Lewis –

“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own,’ or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life — the life God is sending one day by day.” 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, 

Thank you for your loving care over us… and that you have us in your arms.  Sorry for the times we run our lives without acknowledging your Sovereignty, and we think that our ultimate destiny is controlled by us.  Help us realise that we depend on you for everything… and to have the attitude of humility in our daily lives.  Help us be aware of your presence in everything we do and may we discern with clarity the path you want us to take in our lives.   

Today, as we start our day, may you give us ears to hear and eyes to see and help us be sensitive to where you want to lead us.  And give us courage to be obedient to your promptings. 

Amen.  

A few months ago, I decided to try something new.

I had been reading a lot about people who practiced a proper day of Sabbath rest and was curious.  In both my roles as a lecturer at Bible college and as Chief of staff in a not-for-profit organisation, COVID-19 had brought about a huge increase in my overall workload.  I thought if I could experience a fraction of what these authors were sharing about how life giving they felt through practicing Sabbath rest, I’d be content.  

This morning, as you read this devotional, ready to begin yet another work day, you might be asking how all this is relevant?  If you’re completely content about your pace of life and your restful state as you go about your daily work, then read no further.  

However, if you’re feeling somewhat tired now even after a night of rest and feel like you’re stuck in a hurried, constant state of busyness, I invite you to join me on this Sabbath experiment.  

Firstly, why are we even talking about rest?  In Genesis 1:31 – 2:3 it says, 
“31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.  2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” 

It’s interesting to note that the very first “thing” that God calls holy is not indeed a thing, or a place (like the other religions), but instead it is time or a day. 

So back to my Sabbath experiment – here was what I did. 
Take a Sabbath, or in Hebrew the word Shabbat which means stop.  I chose to start on Saturday sundown till Sunday night and really rest.  To me that meant to stop, worship and delight in God.  For a whole 24 hours.  And when i stopped, I stopped thinking about work, doing work, planning for work.  I also decided that some of the things I was doing on my iPhone could have been defined as work, so I decided that my phone was going to rest with me too.

In the midst of this process, taking a Sabbath meant I had to clearly define what was “work” for me.  This meant thinking through and deciding which activities constituted rest and which ones were work.  Living as a single, by myself, away from my family, I soon learned after a few weeks that I would have to be selective about who I would choose to spend that day of rest with.   

What this experiment did was change the rhythm of my entire week, as it required careful planning to ensure I could rest properly for that seventh day.  Whilst I am still refining my weekly schedule, I’m increasingly realising the truth of Walter Brueggemann’s words “People who keep Sabbath live all seven days differently.”

Whilst I always knew that I wouldn’t have a problem feasting during the Sabbath, or as John Mark Comer termed “pleasure stacking” (where you experience good thing after good thing as you would when celebrating a birthday), the ever growing tougher revelations for me included the following: 

• I realised I didn’t know how to properly rest. 
• I realised my addiction to my phone. 
• I underestimated how much value, importance and significance I received via the sometimes relentless messages on social media and WhatsApp.
• I realised there was discipline required in not simply not doing work, but also not thinking about the never ending pile of to-dos that I had left incomplete at work.  

Perhaps the toughest thing I found was to sit in silence and solitude.  The silence seemed so deafening… as it was very confronting to deal with the thoughts that were swirling around in my mind.  Through this process, I have learnt more about myself as I gave myself space to journal and process my feelings and bring them to God. 

With my one day of rest each week, it’s caused me to learn how to slow my general pace of life for the rest of the week.  I’m beginning to realise the wisdom of Dallas Willard, as he called busyness the enemy of spiritual life and urged us to ruthlessly eliminate hurry.   As confronting as it was to admit, John Ortberg was right when he said that “Busyness isn’t just a disordered schedule, it’s a disordered heart”. 

Yet, in the world today, busyness is something that we almost take pride in.  We pack our schedules to the brim to make the most of every second of the day.  I wonder how much this busyness illustrates to others how important we are and how able we are to do everything?  

Perhaps as you consider joining me in this experiment, the real question is : What stops you from taking time out to rest? What are you afraid of? 

Prayer : 
God, thank you for creating the Sabbath and giving us the Sabbath.  Thank you that you designed a day of rest when you created this universe and called it holy.  Forgive us for the times we have played god and ran our lives thinking we can do it our way.  Please help us to slow down, to be present and to stop the busyness and hurry of life, so we can hear you clearly and delight in your presence.  In Jesus name, Amen.