Photo credit: Frauke Riether from Pixabay
Would you rather live inside your comfort bubble or rather toss yourself to the unknown? Change is constant. Change is inevitable. But not all people embrace change. It is difficult to some, while others can easily deal with it.
From fashion trend to technological advancement to social media breakthrough and even the climate, they all change. What about humans? I believe, we also change. As complex living organisms, we are susceptible to change especially when it involves our mental, personal and emotional aspects.
“New Normal” is a popular phrase that is trending in social media nowadays. Due to global pandemic, bizarre becomes ordinary and sporadic becomes regular. Before, it is a must to an employee to go to the office or else payslip will suffer, but now you can build your office inside your room, with your laptop or desktop on, then you are good to go to a thing called “work at home”. Before, you can have drinking, bonding and shopping spree all day long, now even buying groceries is like joining a marathon because of the curfew, rushing all errands. Before, you can drive and travel freely as far as you can and can go to other places, now your meter is counted due to lockdown to most cities and places. Before, you can hug, kiss and handshake anyone especially your loved ones, friends and colleagues, now your nods and hand waves are a gesture of your Hi’s and Hello’s due to social distancing. Meetings are also done via video conference call even if you are just meters away. What about attending church services?
Social media becomes now a tool not only in the form of entertainment but also to some digital entrepreneurs. If selling and buying are done via online, why not do the same in worshipping God? As a Christian, social distancing can still make us much closer. Online worship as the new normal to most Christians and to all believers in general is really helping and working at the top-notch despite of great physical distance. We may not be physically close but spiritually we are in one accord and the virus cannot stop us. The virus cannot shut our lips and cannot freeze our hands to praise God neither stop us working in the vineyard of the Lord. God will make a way!
I must say, this is the best thing happened to social media, when we use it in propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After all, we were instructed to do so. Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, as an emblem of His Great Commission. The union of these three titles will lead into one name and that Name can be found in Acts 2:38 “ Then Peter said unto them “ Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” . The volume of the message echoed louder in Acts 4:12 “Neither is there any salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
Living in this new normal life, somehow shaped the minds of people, that these tools can be a solid platform in reaching those afar, not only spreading news or giving information to current events, but above all “The Good News”. A worthy paradigm to emulate rather than using this as a display place for blasphemous postings, threats, curses and more. This is when social media now becoming more beneficial to mankind.
Yes, it is true, global economy is in jeopardy. Both employers and employees are affected. Sales are low, salaries are cut and worse some businesses were closed, and a lot of people became jobless, but I firmly believe that this cataclysmic episode of our lives made us more thankful and appreciative. In a sense that we now set aside our differences. We appreciate now the value of every work from all walks of life, like our frontlines. We appreciate the value of time. We appreciate and thankful to what we have. We appreciate now the cost of humanity, food and money are valued much this time. We appreciate the significance of life that possessions or positions cannot not save us from this unseen enemy, and this gives mankind equality. This makes everyone a giver. But the most important thing, we become more prayerful and become closer to God. This is what we really need, to have God as the center of our lives at all times.
It maybe hard to adapt the fast-changing patterns of the world but I am sure there is a message underneath when we decipher the meaning. More than intercepting and decoding freemason’s hidden treasure, what we need is to decrypt every message of this new normal brings. One thing is for sure, the message it carries to people that our time is limited, and world is changing but to God, He will never change.
Hebrews 13:8, NIV: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."
Malachi 3:6, NIV: "I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed."
James 1:17 "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
Therefore, let us all turn our changing lives to the Unchanging God -Jesus Christ!
