Breaking Spiritual Quarantine

Are you inconvenienced yet?  I spent a large chunk of my day today just talking to people who are isolated at home.  Some have voiced missing others, some have talked about the fears they have for the survival of their business, others have talked about how hard it has been to go and get things.  Being isolated or even quarantined is a new experience for most people.  We have grown accustomed to 24/7 Walmarts, the church community, and eating in restaurants.  Our lives have been turned upside down and limited by this forced isolation.  

Yet, our secular modern age itself can be defined as a type of isolation or quarantine from the Spiritual.   The Lord has been framed out of the public square and thus people are taught that our lives are just the product of chance or coincidence.  And because modern secular life has quarantined itself from God, there is little lasting meaning given to the things that people do.  We (people as a whole in the west), have lived disenchanted (quarantined) lives from God and thus unwittingly, like today, lack a sense of the spiritual significance that invades our world.  

Bible verses like Psalm 19:1 reminds us that the Lord invades all of creation, it reads “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”  Every day, and every event is dripping with divine presence.  It is time to come out of Spiritual isolation and encounter the living God.  How do you do that?  I think a good place to begin is to follow the instruction given to Peter, James and John by the Father when they themselves were struggling to understand what it means for the Kingdom of God to be present among us.  The Father said to them – “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him (Luke 9:35)!”  We come out of our spiritual isolation through engagement with God’s word.  Thus, I encourage you to open up the Bible to one of the Gospel books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and listen to the Son.  

Grace and Peace, 

Pastor Trent (3/19/2020)