Phases of schooling. That’s what we’re doing in NSW at the moment. We’re about to move from phase zero – 100% online learning – into phase one – partial face to face, partial online learning – as of tomorrow. No one actually knows how it will go…

For some of us, the online switch has meant a complete 180 swing in how we communicate with students and a mandated and swift “up-skilling” in the digital realm. And yet we push on, into a new phase. Some are keen for the change, others are nervous.

Much like life: new seasons or times of change bring uncertainty. And everyone’s feeling rather exhausted right now: physically and emotionally.

But there’s one thing we should not give up, as we move into this new phase, and it’s something we should hold onto as the seasons of our lives change too.

It’s Hope.

Hope for a better tomorrow. Hope that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Hope that we will learn from these dark times and realign our lives pre-COVID with better patterns and behaviours.

As the apostle Paul wrote to the Philippian Church when he was in jail for sharing the gospel,

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead

For it’s not the tragedy that brings hopelessness. It’s failing to learn, change and grow from it, that leads us to despair. The horrific state of the world right now, should cause us all to reflect.

If it doesn’t, what will?

Regardless of what different states and territories in Australia are doing with education, there’s a chance for all of us to step up and embrace a new season in our lives. To become the person we want to be, instead of the person we were pre-COVID.

You might be keen. You might also be nervous, because there is always uncertainty in a new season. What you need is a guide to help you navigate the change.

God is the master of making things new and turning things 180 degrees around: seasons, brokenness, people, places. As it says in the Biblical book of Proverbs:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

When you’re charting a new course, you want to know that God’s got your back. What if you step into a new season and things fall apart?

The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.

I feel like the week ahead is looking a bit like that: a stumble about week, with trying to navigate new things, in uncharted waters. Maybe your feel your life has been a bit like that too: a stumble about.

I think as we emerge out of our “hibernation isolation circuit breaker” (or whatever you call it), now is the perfect time to chart a new course in our lives. We might not know which path to take. We might feel like we’re stumbling around.

But if we call out to God, he’ll show us the way to go and stop us from falling. He says:

Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 

Isn’t that incredible?

God’s not angry. Or distant. Or disinterested. He’s the very opposite: Just waiting to be found.

Imagine if you could say that to someone post-COVID about what you did in isolation?

“I found God.”

It’s time for new seasons. So, why not start looking today?

Yours in playing hide and seek,

Alison