What good can come up out of the ground?
Two years since the COVID pandemic hit and most people can pinpoint a place of loss over that timeframe. Maybe it’s the loss of a relationship that was severed over opposing views or by the constraint of keeping a small circle when the risk of spreading was high. Or the loss of normalcy from frequent changes around masking, isolation and exposure. Maybe you lost a loved one from COVID or cancer or another disease or an unexpected trauma. Or you lost things that seemed secure: a job, your church community, your finances. Could it be that your loss was unrelated to the pandemic? You suffered a miscarriage. Infertility was the final diagnosis. You were in a car accident. You sustained a painful, life-altering injury. The list for losses could continue because beyond the pandemic, life was happening. And in our broken world, life includes pain and loss.
In spite of all the losses, I can’t help but also think of what has been gained throughout the pandemic. When you look back over the last two years, what good has come from a season of slowing down, reflection, and re-prioritizing? Where can you see the goodness of God in how your life has been re-routed? Has something new been added into your life that you are surprisingly grateful for?
A lesson on dying
For decades, I’ve served the church and led a variety of ministries. In multiple church contexts, I never learned about the beauty of letting something end. Or that it was good for a group (or program or ministry) to die so that something new could be born. It seemed to me that the message from most church leadership was “keep being faithful”, even when it looked like it was dying. Or maybe it was actually THRIVING and you sensed it was time to lay it down but felt obligated to keep going. I somehow missed the lesson on how to let a thing go into the ground.
With the celebration of Easter this weekend, it seems like a beautiful time to examine what needs to die in order that something new would be resurrected in your own life. Or possibly, has something already died and you keep trying to breathe new life into it when it needs to be buried into the ground? A favorite quote of mine around this concept of new life after death comes from Barbara Brown Taylor:
“…new life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.”
There has been darkness in our lives over the last two years. But where have you seen new life arise out of the darkness?
Naming losses and gains
One loss I have and am still experiencing is masking while interacting with my pediatric patients. As a physical therapist who primarily works with children under the age of 5, I rely on facial expressions and the sound of my voice to be a source of comfort and joy for them. The loss of those has forced me to shift my communication skills, using my eyes more expressively and increasing animation of my voice in the hope of connecting with my patients. And the parents! How much I desire for them to see and know the compassion I have for their children!
While I acknowledge this as a loss, I also see God’s goodness in the last two years. A few months into the shut down, I found myself reflecting on my commitment to an online business that I had been invested in for over 10 years. I watched the shift from connecting with customers in person to the connection through social media. It felt limiting to me.
God began to clearly let me know it was time for my business to be buried in the ground so that He could do a new thing. He began to water a seed of writing that had been in my heart for a long time. What had been lying dormant in me started pushing its way up to the surface and begging for a place in the garden of my life. My writing was no longer something that I could just keep in closed journals but God asked me to put it on display. And my blog was born.
Cultivating new growth
One year ago, I gave space for something new to come out of me. A new way to connect with others, through my writing. A successful business had been laid to rest and with it, the comfort of all that I had built: Relationships with customers. Income that supported our family. An identity as the “bag lady.” The achievements and recognition I received through the company. I buried it all.
Writing to all of you became the thing I wanted to cultivate. The little sprout of an idea that words matter and women who wanted to follow the way of Jesus needed tending to. Over the last several weeks, God has given me clarity and a greater vision for my little space here on the internet. He has been showing me what women who desire to follow Jesus need more of in their life. He’s bringing beauty into barren places and I can’t wait to share it with all of you!
I resonate with these lyrics from Beautiful Things by Gungor:
All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change, at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found?
Could a garden come out from this ground, at all?
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
Discovering your own story
There’s a need to name things that have been lost. Because of the pandemic but also because real life has happened over the last two years. It’s also worthwhile to reflect on what God is asking you to bury in the ground so that He can bring a new thing up out of the soil of your life. Even in loss, we know that He works all things for our good. How can you celebrate what has been gained over that same time frame? Where have you seen new life rise up out of darkness in your life? What do you believe might never have been started if something else hadn’t been laid to rest? Have you experienced the beauty of something ending so that something new could begin? I’d be honored to hear your story.