(Change For Good is an ongoing series of thoughts and observations on life as impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic)

Everything is slowing down. Life as we know is crawling to a near stop.

Decisions have been made for us. We have no choice in some matters. We suddenly realize we don’t need to rush from one thing to the next. But we still feel the “need for speed”.

We feel rushed in our soul. We’ve grown accustomed to living life fast. But our calendar is far less full now. The hours in our day far more empty. Our heart must learn something new.

To rest.

To rest doesn’t have to mean a full stop. But it does mean to take refreshment, to be replenished. 

Life will go back to “normal” and when it does, how will you go back to living your life? 

Let’s learn to enjoy a slower pace of life. 

You can drink your first cup of coffee a little slower. You can read your devotional and the Bible a little slower. You can eat breakfast a little slower. You can slow down a little and have a little longer conversation with your children. You can slow the bedtime routine and talk a few more minutes.

You can slow down your planning ahead – by hours, days, even weeks. Certain disciplines and routines remain in place. As they should. But you can slow down. Your heart can slow down. Your heart doesn’t have to be rushed through the day.

When Jesus said we shouldn’t worry about the necessities of our life, it wasn’t that planning or working was unimportant, but only that undue worry and apprehension was, and is, unhealthy for our heart. Some things don’t have to be sought first after all. (see Luke 12:22-31)

Slow down. You don’t have a choice in many ways. But you can choose in the most important way to slow down: rest in Jesus and in the blessing that is this life.