Recovering from isolation and lockdown and loneliness? Are you shocked as you realize that perhaps the semi-isolation lifestyle, induced world-wide by the Covid virus, has actually affected who you are – notwithstanding your having had or having been spared the actual illness?
I am realizing as I re-enter the world, unmasked yet cautious, that I seem to have lost some social skills that previously allowed me to live a full and productive life – a life of giving, serving, sharing, receiving, fellowshipping, rejoicing – a life that made me welcomed in community and church and service. Loving people with no thought of reward. A life of hope and joy and expectant abundant living.
Can Isolation Ruin Social Skills?
Many of us feel that communication skills have been lost to some degree during the shutdowns associated with Covid. As I struggle with once again being spontaneous, positive, and encouraging, I confess to feeling a bit hesitant and awkward. The spiritual gift of joy and optimism that I have shared for years seems less spontaneous.
How Do You Talk to Someone after Isolating Yourself?
It is time for a refreshing and a refilling. Surely we were not meant to be loners, sliding into judgmentalism, sliding into depression and isolation. There are the masses of people who have no hope, who have not heard the Good News from God, who are beset with suffering and are needy in various ways. God is not through with me yet.
John 10:10
My life verse is from John 10:10 when Jesus promises: “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.” My life has been filled with many opportunities, successes, and failures – all undergirded by God’s presence and guidance. Surely, I must once again claim the promises of God and go into the world in whatever mode is afforded me, in order to fulfill the exhortation to spread the Love of God around the world.
Perhaps we need to re-examine our current mental and spiritual status. Activating our gift of forgiving others, we find that joy and hope are still alive and well. The world needs the gifts of the fruits of the Spirit of God that are available to all who accept the forgiveness that the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ provides. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness self-control.
“God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many kinds of blessings.” I Peter 4:10.
Rejoicing in the Present
Looking forward to fulfilling our calling in life. Setting aside time to listen to God’s voice of encouragement and leadership. “There is never a room so dark that the ever-present, ever-pursuing, relentlessly tender Father God is not there, tapping gently on the doors of our hearts, waiting to be invited in.” Max Lucado
If we want to be more like Christ today than what we were yesterday, we must spend time in prayer confessing our sins, and He will empower us to become the persons we were called to be.
Isaiah 40:31 … “but those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Recovering from Isolation and Lockdown
The demands and frustrations of life are too heavy for us to carry alone. Jesus wants to carry your load. Watch the Great News video on this page to know the gift of forgiveness, love and power offered for you and for me.
