Reset

reset: – to set, adjust, or fix in a new or different way

Today, while I confess driving in my car to get coffee, God spoke to me the word “reset”.

I was reminded how every so often, my laptop seems to have a little freak out. Whether it’s because I have too many windows open, it’s lost its connection to the Wifi, or it needs to update, but I find myself needing to give it a complete shutdown so it can reset itself.  And to be honest, when it happens it is frustrating. It interferes with my work. I have to stop what I am doing so that the computer can restart itself up again. But once it has reset, I’m away again. The laptop and I are better off for it, it’s faster and cleaner.

This Lockdown seems to be the world’s shutdown. It is something that has been forced upon us. Causing a lot more disturbance than a computer reset I might add! It has stopped us from our normal life. Interrupted our plans. Restricted what we can do and changed many lives forever.

But through it all, when it’s time to start up “life” again, we have this opportunity to press reset. To decide what we pick up again and what we let go. To decide our go forward in life. To adjust or approach life in a different way.

In Isaiah there is a beautiful description of the Restoration of Israel which I believe is a word of encouragement for us.

 “I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places – firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community liveable again.” (Isaiah 58:11-12 msg)

What a mandate, what an encouragement and what hope! That we, the Church, can make the community liveable again. There is so much hurt, stress and pain around us. But we can re-enter our communities with a voice of hope and the tools of the Kingdom in hand. This is our opportunity to exit Lockdown with God’s purpose first and foremost on our minds.

In a preceding verse it says, “your lives will begin to glow in the darkness.” God’s plan to bring light into the world is us, that we would reveal Christ. It’s time to be ready to reset and re-enter life with an eternal perspective. We can demonstrate trust in our Restorer, our Redeemer. And we can point to Him, the Hope of the World.