Like many people, my day-to-day schedule was radically altered last week as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic. My kids are not able to go to school, and my husband and I are both required to work from home. In one sense, there is a great degree of uncertainty about how the coming days and weeks will look. And while we don’t know the details of our days, we are grateful that we can put them in the hands of our loving God. In another sense, however, it felt like we had been given something that is rarer than a green-eyed unicorn: more time. Suddenly, the number of commitments that we had outside of home and work were substantially reduced. While each day was still only 24-hours, it felt like they had grown – we had more time at home, more time together, and more “free” time to spend. In a world where it feels like time passes us by, having more of it is a significant blessing.
Of course, as with anything God gives us, it is important that we use these newfound hours for His glory. We don’t just want to spend this free time; we want to invest it for the sake of God’s Kingdom. Here are some of the ways that we can do that.
Serve Others More
When all of a sudden we were all home and had few outside commitments, it quickly became clear that there would be a temptation to focus on ourselves. After all, if you are not expected to be anywhere at any specific time, it is easy to fritter away the day doing what you want to do when you want to do it. However, this perspective is far from God-honoring. Instead, when we are faced with more time to spend, we should consider it more time to serve.
Of course, this intention is complicated if you, like many around the globe, have been instructed to self-isolate. How do you serve others while also maintaining social distancing? It turns out that there is a variety of ways. You can drop off items on your neighbor’s front porch; over the phone you can help less tech-savvy relatives with online ordering. You can refuse to hoard supplies and give generously of what you have. Serving others may involve helping a co-worker with the transition to remote working, or letting a sibling chose the family activity even if it’s your turn to decide. Under normal circumstance we think that service requires proximity to others, but has often been said, necessity is the mother of invention. And if you spend time thinking about it, you can figure out ways to serve other people even if physically distanced.
Pray More
Another way that we can use our extra time is to pray more. Shortly before my work started taking measures in response to COVID-19, I had the privilege of listening to a lecture about how God’s heart is for His Church to spread the message of salvation to every tribe, tongue and nation. It prompted me to download an app where every day I am informed about a people group who are considered “unreached.” If my schedule was like it normally is, I don’t know how consistent I would have been in utilizing the notifications. But having the “extra time” has prompted me to consistently petition my Father on behalf of these people groups.
However, it is not just unreached people that we can be praying for. We should be dedicating our “extra” time to pray for our local church, for the global Church, and for the individuals that are part of our “small group” church community. We should be praying that God uses the fear and anxiety that many nonbelievers are experiencing to prompt them to seek Him, and that we would be looking for opportunities to share His message of confident hope and assured salvation. An interesting fact that I often share with my classes is that when I worked for a Christian publishing company, our business often boomed when the economy faltered. The reason is that many people sought the truth of God’s Word when they could no longer rely on their temporal comforts and wealth. We would be wise to pray that this pandemic quickly ends, but also that God would draw many to Himself as they recognize the fragility of life.
Learn More
Still another way that we can use our extra time is to invest it in building our knowledge of God and His Word. This may come in the form of reading or listening to a good book or in engaging in a study of a part of the Bible. My recommendation is to avoid the temptation to spend the time listening to podcasts or reading magazine articles and blogs (although I realize that since this is written on a blog that recommendation is a little self-defeating.) These shortened published materials are designed for a fast-paced lifestyle. If your life has slowed down so can your mental consumption patterns. Invest in digging into something that you normally wouldn’t have time for. When things return to “normal,” you will be better for it.
Prepare More
You may be tempted to think that this is where I suggest building a survival kit, and you’re right – kind of. But I am not recommending the type of survival kit that is filled with bottles of water and dehydrated meats (although there may be wisdom in having one of those tucked away too.) Instead, it would be wise to invest the time in preparing your heart to respond to life’s circumstances in a way that honors God by memorizing His Word. Luke 6:45 teaches us that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, and in the last week we have seen a lot of people speak words of fear and division. Wouldn’t it be great if our words were ones of confident faith and love? The more that God’s Word is in our minds, the more that we’ll be able to respond to circumstances, good and bad, in ways that give glory to Him.
Encourage More
I shared on Instagram the other day that part of our new “Winter Learning Academy” was something that I not-so-creatively called “The Kindness and Encouragement Project.” When normal activities started shutting down, our family was in the category of those last impacted because we are relatively young and healthy. But we knew many people who were impacted right away – some in serious ways because of health conditions, and others in not-so-serious but still significant ways because the plans that they had for celebrations had to be shifted. To help get our focus off ourselves and on to other people, we made it a goal to use our extra time at home to encourage others. This could be a letter to someone who is sick and unable to have visitors, or a birthday card to a friend whose party had to be cancelled. We didn’t have a plan of who all we would reach out to, we just made it a point to do something every day to lift someone else’s spirts. My kids’ eagerness to constantly add to our list of who should be next, reminds me that when we build others up, it often has the same impact on ourselves.
Teach More
I have never had so much time at home with my kids. Even during the summer when they are out of school, we are constantly on the move, scheduling playdates and engaging in activities. However, for the time being, we are just with our family which is a perfect opportunity to invest in their spiritual growth and development. If you’re a parent, I encourage you to not just take on the role of “teacher” in terms of your child’s school work, but to also think about what you want them to have learned about God when things return to the regular scheduled programming. What new attribute of God do you want them to understand? What God-honoring character trait do you want to help them develop? It is good if they understand the Pythagorean Theorem and the parts of speech, but you will be infinitely more grateful if, when they return to their regular classroom, they have a deeper understanding of Who God is and how He desires for them to live.
There is a lot that we can do with the “extra” time that many of us feel like we have been given. Let’s make sure that when we consider the abundance of things that could fill it, that first and foremost we invest in things that help our life, and the lives of those we interact with, look more like Jesus’.
