The COVID-19 pandemic presents us with an opportunity for powerful transformation in our hearts and our lives. If we will forego conceding to all the negative thoughts and emotions that steer us to fear, worry, and stress, and we resist the urge to hide out and distract ourselves, we can open to the wisdom this season offers us.
The third of the 4 Life-Changing Lessons I’ve Learned from the COVID-19 Crisis is this.
What’s Most Important
Seasons of Turbulence in our lives filter out what we don’t need, and they illuminate what is most important.
Much the same way as flowing water collides with rocks or other obstacles, though its flow is temporarily impeded, the debris is siphoned during the process. Eventually, the water finds an opening and resumes its flow in a purer state.
This time of quarantine and social distancing forces us to slow down, be more present, and if we allow it, to re-evaluate what is essential and most important in our lives. During this season, I’ve recognized just how much I don’t really need all that I think I do, and how unproductive it is for me to carry so many burdens.
As a society, it’s clear that we choose a lifestyle that we are convinced lends itself to greater convenience and more enjoyment, but instead, creates more hassle and stress. We seek to attain, achieve, and accumulate more and more, then we spend our time, energy, and resources maintaining all of it instead of enjoying life.
We run at break-neck pace, offering the best of who we are to everything and everybody else, leaving little for what really matters most to us. We live in overwhelm, duty, obligation, and anxiety at the expense of our health and our heart, and we don’t even stop to notice the cost. This slower, simpler season is the perfect time to reconnect to ourselves and re-evaluate what is necessary, important, and meaningful. My hope is that we will allow this time of crisis to filter out the debris from our hearts and our lives, so, we are free to return to what matters most.
I challenge you to examine and evaluate your own heart and life. What’s inside of you that needs to be filtered out? What are you dependent on or attached to that feels like bondage? What’s stealing your time, energy, and resources that you need to release?
“In the rush to return to normal, use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to.” – Dave Hollis
Friends, I challenge you. Let’s not let this season be in vain. Let’s decide that we are not going to return to normalcy unchanged.
Probe your heart. Examine your life. Be open to learning and growing. Allow this time to shift your thinking, expand your awareness, and transform your being.
There’s always beauty in the pain, lessons in the struggle, and much to be grateful for in all of it.
Times of crisis change us. Let this time transform you from the inside out so that your life is never the same. Let it be better than you can imagine!
