When Reagan was born, we were told to never let her get sick due to her GA-1 diagnosis. Sometimes I feel like the entire world just gave birth to a medically fragile child.

Seven years ago, Rob and I become ultra aware of germs, being out in public, sanitizing, and protecting a baby with no built up immune system. All that striving and need to maintain control still didn’t yield our desired outcome. Reagan had a metabolic crisis, stroke, brain damage, all the most horrible things you could have a nightmare about was our reality.

God has taught me so much since then. He’s shown me how to decipher what is really important, what really matters. Now quarantine is forcing everyone to do that.

It’s so odd to me that even in a pandemic, we are piling more onto our plates, increasing our work loads, our children’s workloads, distracting ourselves, or diving so deep into the news that we become paralyzed. Is this an American thing? Can we not just be?

It took a long time, but I have learned no matter the season, no matter the struggle or triumph, only one thing matters and that’s where we stand with God. Don’t you think that God might be shaking up the entire earth to gain our attention?

Sports are canceled.
School is at home.
Work is at home.
Everyone is together.
People are stressed.
Jobs are gone.
Countries have shut down.
People are shutting down.

We almost lost Reagan completely, we still lost a lot. I could barely function. Everything felt meaningless, I did a lot of things to distract me from my new reality. My mind and my emotions were turbulent and the only thing that could ground me and help me was reading God’s word. Talking to God. Fighting with God. Wrestling. Breathing. Learning and realizing that God never makes mistakes.

A pandemic is hard, but if I could offer up what I’ve learned through my life’s own pandemonium here’s what I would say:

1. Release the things you can’t control (this is a continual process).
2. Get rid of things that don’t matter.

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” – Philippians 3:8-10

This pandemic is a marker, an event that will live in the history of the world forever. And we are all experiencing it together. Because of the losses and grief we endured with Reagan’s crisis (and still endure as we enter new milestones and seasons) I have realized that anything we have gone through or will go through that hurts is WORTH it, due to the how much I now know Christ. I HAVE to spend time with Jesus every single morning to make it through the day. And now everyone has time, we’ve got time.

Can I be really honest with you? The Bible is filled with people who really don’t know what the hell they’re doing. They mess up all the time, they cheat, murder, lie, hide, steal, distract themselves with anything they can to not deal with God, and then try to cover it all up in lame human efforts. The people in the Bible are just like us.

James 5:17 says Elijah was a human being, even as we are. FREAKING ELIJAH! He never died and was taken up in a chariot of fire to Heaven. He’s just like us? Really? The rest of the verse says he prayed earnestly. Is that the only difference between the rest of us and Elijah?

Can you be still in this time and listen for what God is wanting to tell you? Can you wait and see what God wants to do? Do you believe that God still has a purpose in a pandemic?

We’ve been separated and sifted, we’re mostly doing life alone, and we’re not made to do life alone. Even now, there’s talk of slowly opening up our country, ahead of expert’s opinions. Are you rushing back into the grind? Are you afraid to go out? Who are you doing life with if you are mostly isolated? What is filling that void, is it God? How are you pandemic’ing?

REMEMBER

1. Release the things you can’t control.
2. Get rid of things that don’t matter.

Then, be still and and allow God to fight your battles. You will never regret getting to know God, or seeing his plan for your life, I promise. Through this pandemic, we can see how little we actually do control, and how little the things that used to matter actually matter. This pandemic is a perfect time to test whether God is who he says he is. It’s the perfect time to take 10 minutes a day and read a verse, download the Bible app, ask God to reveal what he’s trying to tell you or teach you. And don’t be afraid to tell him how you feel. He wants to talk to you.

In the moments of quiet I’ve had and spent with God, I have been amazed at his continuous revelations of knowledge, wisdom, grace and peace that surpasses anything this pandemic has brought or can bring. I hope this is encouraging to you and challenging. If you want to take me up on this challenge, tag me on IG with the hashtag #10withGodchallenge so I can continue encouraging you.

Quarantine well my friends.

xoxo
Anne-Marie