The year 2021 has begun. There’re many news, exciting things, catchy phrases, and highlight stories. We too find ourselves bombarded with so many news and activities. Things happened so quickly, even things that I learnt and thought to write down. So here just a few captures which I could save still in my memory.
Shut Down vs Reset
We have heard it so many times, that COVID-19 is the ‘great’ Reset button. And I just ponder that a bit more. In computer world, a reset is a gentle tap of a special button, to restart / reboot a computer. In old days, it could take awhile for a computer to restart itself. The assumption is if there’s anything wrong, you restart the computer and it starts from beginning and most the time will solve about 80% of problems.
However, if you press the power button for awhile. You press it and hold (usually 8 seconds), then you let it go. You’re actually forcing a shut down of the entire machine. And if you wait perhaps a minute or two then power on the machine again, it is called the hard reset. It flushes out everything and make it really ‘new’ to begin again.
As I ponder upon COVID-19, if this is an act of God, I think God is doing a hard and long press on us with this pandemic. He is not merely resetting things. He is taking a lengthy press to get our attention, and to flush out all the wrong stuff that had taken so bad a turn. So take a long and careful look at things. Instead of expecting this as a quick reset and back again, consider if this is a long press, followed by a silent of death for even longer times, before resurrected to a totally new beginning.
And as you consider the act of mercy of God, I pray He might bring restoration and healing that our hearts so long for. And we would praise Him for His acts. Join me then to press hard and long into God, and wait patiently till all died that do not belong to His purposes. Afterwards, in His good times, we would see a brand new of things that God had brought about.
Sweeping the floor
We have one big family project over Christmas and this month January; namely to tidy up the house. Yesterday I didn’t have much energy and plan to have a restful Sunday. So I sweep the floor from the dust and small things that dirty the floors. We just cleaned the floor about a week or less ago. So what I did was actually just picking up a small amount of dirts (few of food crumbs under the table, few drops of hair, and those dusts in between).
As a father, I thought to myself, that my girls are big enough, and a lot of these mess are their doings (food drops, small pieces of paper, etc), and they should be the one doing. And my mind went to Job, how he offered to God sin offerings to atone for the sins of his children for he thought they might offended God unknowingly. So two things came to me:
- A priestly role of a father/mother. Asking God’s forgiveness on behalf of our children. One way or another, knowingly or unknowingly, we all sinners and we do sin. The house is clean already, but I still sweep the floor from time to time because the dust keep coming. It’s a reminder that all our sin are paid in full by Jesus on the cross. We all are saved, but we do sin from time to time and need those God’s mercy, forgiveness, and cleansing.
- God as the cleaner of our hearts. Again similar to the point 1, but God is the one who desire to clean our hearts from day to day sin whether we know or not. As much as I want my house to be clean, God is certainly in greater desire for our hearts to be as clean as possible. And he does that cleaning daily. If we’re sensitive to Him, we would see and hear Him everywhere.
Safety from vs Limited freedom
So it’s an unplanned and unthinkable happenings in our family. My wife suddenly agree to have a pet. And she spent so much time to plan for it. Last night we discussed where to keep the pet.
I like the idea of freedom, and I suggest to let the pet run freely in our backyard. My wife on the other hand, thought of putting a ‘cage’ at the backyard. You might immediately drawn to my thinking which suggest freedom. That this pet could help to eat our weeds, chase away birds, and enjoy freedom to choose where they want to make their home.
The other reasons that my wife stated about her fear of stomping on the pet when she walked there, or if the pet would eat all her vegetables, or the difficulties on catching them if we need to, seem could be addressed with some efforts.
And then she told me that she’s afraid if our neighbor’s cat could eat the pet. Though I said to her why she bother so much about the life of a pet (if they’re eaten by another animal), I thought of a precious lesson.
Often we felt restrained or constraint with rules and regulations. We see it in the Bible, and in our daily lives. Much more because of this COVID-19. There’re so many rules and precautions. And we felt they’re so restraining and we lost our freedom. Whereas, what if from God’s perspective, they’re actually the boundaries and protections that He puts around us for our safety? We thought we rather run freely in danger then staying put in safety. Is that a recklessness at the expense of our lives? And if to me my wife is so kindhearted for the life of a small pet, that she thought of so many things for the safety & comfort of those little animals at the expense of our cost and troubles, how much more God spend His care and love for us? Hope you could see a glimpse of God’s heart and start seeing the vastness of God’s undying love for you and me.
Have a blessed New Year 2021