March 2020 - Profoundly Simple

How to connect with others and avoid feeling isolated

In times when we are not able to connect with one another in person, we may feel isolated. Here are some ways we can lovingly interact with people and intentionally reconnect.

Interact in a loving way

Even though we are intentionally physically separating, we can still connect and interact with people safely in a loving way. A smile can be offered from a safe distance, as can kind thoughts toward one another. We can extend the love and grace that God gives to us to others, remembering that each person is one of God’s precious children.

Make an effort to connect

For many of us, times of separation mean not attending the usual activities or social gatherings we are accustomed to in person. If we don’t make an effort to connect with others, we may start to feel isolated. People we know may also feel isolated.

How can we reconnect when we’re not gathering together?

We can still safely reach out via phone calls, texts, emails, and various modes of video connections. We can smile and wave to our neighbors.

This is also a great opportunity to write a note and send a card or handwritten letter to someone.

Pray for one another

We can pray for one another.

Now more than ever we need to connect to one another. When we can’t meet in person, we can do one better. We can meet by heart.

Who do you know in need of a personal connection or social interaction?

Ask God

Pray. Take a moment and ask God,

“Who needs to hear from someone today?

Who would benefit from knowing someone thought of them today?”

Listen

Listen. God wants to speak to us. Often we just need to give Him space to do so.

A person’s name may come to mind. We may sense in our heart that someone needs to hear from us. We might also receive an email or text and learn that a friend’s loved one is alone and could use a card. We might remember a friend or family member who lives alone.

God speaks

God speaks into our hearts, places thoughts in our minds, and communicates with us through people and situations around us. If we are open to realizing God can speak to us in this manner, we are more likely to recognize when He does.

God’s love

Remembering God’s love for us and all His children can place us in a frame of mind that helps us see the grocery store clerk as somebody who could use an encouraging word of thanks. It may also remind us to pray for medical workers, emergency responders, teachers, delivery workers, and other service personnel on the front lines, or families trying to navigate new territory.

Intentional connection

Prayer is intentional connection. I have been involved in groups of people who pray for one another. So often a friend who needed prayer has responded afterward, “I felt your prayers.”

Not sure how to pray? I shared some thoughts in a recent post.

Here are a few words you can use to pray for someone:

“Lord, you know what this person is going through, what they need. I lift their name up to you and ask you to watch over them.”

Feel free to come up with your own words. God hears our prayers.

A smile, a thought, a note, a card, a prayer.

How can you connect with someone today?

A blessing

“‘“The Lord bless you
    and keep you;
   the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.”’ Numbers 6:24-26 NIV

Want to have this blessing sung over you? Michael Card sings a beautiful lullaby based on this Scripture.

How to connect to the source of hope and peace

In times of uncertainty when we feel anxious, it helps to know how to connect to the source of hope and peace.

Last summer, which now seems so long ago, I went on a bike ride through a long, dark tunnel that had me praying a Jesus prayer. You know, one of those foxhole prayers when you need a lifeline because the circumstances you find yourself in feel really overwhelming.

It doesn’t matter if you’re the only one having that experience. When you’re worried or distressed, knowing that other people aren’t can be comforting, but sometimes that’s not enough.

What is helpful is knowing that Jesus is with us when we feel that way. A simple call out to Jesus can bring us closer to a place of peace.

May you find comfort, maybe a little humor at my predicament last summer, in how I coped in the darkness.

Coping in the darkness – a guiding light

Maybe my experience and moment of prayer will encourage you in your own prayers.

Simple and desperate prayers are always okay to pray.

“We put our hope in the Lord.
He is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord,
for our hope is in you alone.” Psalm 33:20-22 NLT

Sometimes songs speak the words our hearts need to hear. I heard this song today and it spoke to mine. Perhaps it will speak to yours too.

Fighting for Me – Riley Clemmons

Offer grace and compassion to one another

Walking out this season requires adjustments, like offering grace and compassion to one another.

Adjustments

Anyone else feeling a bit confined in their new work-from-home space? I’m sharing a cramped cubicle with a co-worker in this one room schoolhouse. We’ve had to make adjustments to make it work. The internet is a bit of a timeshare at the moment. I try to limit my use when my husband needs more bandwidth. Thankfully writing blog posts or book content is mostly done offline.

We’ve also been staying home, only going out when we need groceries. (As I write this, one week has passed since the last trip).

On a walk

Out on a walk, we talked to our neighbors who live across the street – from across the street. Venturing out a bit farther, we came across a young family with kids. When we each steered away from one another and the parents scooted their kids a safe distance away, their children asked why. Then came the age appropriate response about social distancing.

We’re told to practice social distancing to avoid the spread of the virus. For some it’s inconvenient. For others it’s a matter of life and death. How do we bridge the gap between the two?

Where grace steps in

The gap is where grace steps in, when we make a choice to benefit someone else and not ourselves.

Early on it was thought that the virus primarily affected the older generation. Some others figured they could go about their business believing the virus wouldn’t impact them.

Once it was discovered that seemingly healthy people could still transmit the virus, the climate changed. Those not directly in harm’s way could still negatively impact those who are.

Conscious choice

We have to make more conscious choices. Do I act in my own best interest or do I consider the life of another?

By choosing to follow the recommendation of social distancing, we as a community positively affect the outcome of this current situation. We do our part to minimize the spread of the virus.

Those who are healthy muddle through these inconveniences the same as those who are not. No one gets a pass. Instead we all adapt in this new environment so everyone receives the benefit.

Call for compassion

The call is for compassion. Compassion means to suffer with. Compassion for one another means we suffer together in these challenging times – inconvenient for some, life-altering for others – so that all may have a chance at receiving the benefit, life.

Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, reached out to a world in need. In all compassion and humility He stepped in with His very life so that we might have the gift of eternal life.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NIV

Grace and compassion

Jesus stepped into the gap, through grace, to our benefit and not His own.

In this season, may we remember the grace and compassion Jesus extended to us, and in turn offer grace and compassion to one another.

“Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.” 1 Peter 3:8 NIV

Need more encouragement in this season?

Look forward in a new way.

Be still.

Did anybody notice? Look forward in a new way.

In this year of 2020, we are in a season requiring clarity of vision. Life is changing. We have to look at things from a different perspective. Maybe this is a chance to look forward in a new way.

In some cases, families are being forced back under one roof. This may be a difficulty or hardship for some. For others it may create a chance to reconnect, learn how to interact together, learn how to be a family with one another.

My prayer is that love and peace would persevere where there is struggle or strife.

For some families, changing conditions mean isolation from loved ones.

My prayer is that those who feel alone will find connection and comfort in some way with people who are close by.

For churches, the building has been closed. Worship has been forced out of the building. Churches are having to rethink how they do church, how they reach out into the community.

My prayer is that more people will have access to and hear a message of hope.

Job situations are changing. My prayer is for all who are impacted economically in this season, especially those feeling the drastic decrease in income, that each one will feel a sense of stability and security in the midst of the uncertainty.

I’m seeing creativity as restaurants learn how to send their food out into the homes and neighborhoods.

My prayer is that we may all find creative new ways of moving forward in a positive direction.

What if one of the repercussions or consequences of this season is that we learn how to be in the home with the family?

So in this season of difficulty and drastic change, don’t be discouraged.

My prayer is that something good grows out of the upset.

“Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV

What can I do in this season of chaos? Be still.

Be still.

One of the most oft-quoted verses in the Bible comes in the middle of the chaos. Find God’s grace and love in the stillness.

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10 NIV

What a beautiful thought, to be still, unless you’re a go-getter, self-starter, take-matters-into-your-own-hands, or prefer-to-be-in-control type of person.

If stillness isn’t your strength, rest assured, you’re in good company. This verse doesn’t show up in the middle of a peaceful, pleasant, gentle-breeze kind of setting. This truth stands in stark contrast to all the verses that surround it. Chaos, earth-shaking, mess-making troubling circumstances surround this simple phrase.

Another way to consider these instructions is, “Rest assured, I’ve got this.” Everything’s under control, God’s control.

“Settle in. Watch me work.”

If we feel like we can’t handle what’s going on in our lives, rest assured, we don’t have to. God has everything covered. Covered by His grace. Covered with His love.

If your inclination is to do something, then believe. Believe that God has everything under control. Believe that God is at work in every situation. Believe that God knows what’s going on and is present in all of it.

If you want something to do, believe.

“God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1 NIV