Coronatine Thoughts

It has been a long while since I have blogged, but considering I have a lot of time, here it goes!

This is an unprecedented time for every single person. Yesterday, I literally cloroxed my mail - like things are just different. And, we could argue all day about whose different is actually worse and how this time is not as bad as another point in history, but we'd be missing the point - that it is in fact different. It's different than what we expected our lives to be like today. It's different in terms of who we see everyday. It's different in terms of how we do our jobs and maybe where we do our jobs. But, here's the thing about different, it's not always a bad thing. And, what I'm about to say is mainly for the people who are now working from home. And, just as a shout-out to you essential people, us non-essential people truly thank you for continuing to go out everyday and working hard!

Over the last couple of years, my life has been increasingly busy. It seems like up until two weeks ago I had not had a break in forever and I'm sure I'm not the only one. And, now I have all the time in the world. So, what am I doing with it? The first couple of days were filled with what if's. What if we don't go back to school? What if I don't get to say goodbye to my seniors? What if they don't get to finish their athletic season? What if I can't sell my house now? And, then, I realized something. Those things are very much out of my control. I can't change any of them. I can't fix them. And, it's not my job to. I can only control what I have control over - which is what I do with my day.

So, I made a list of all of the things that I've said, "I just don't have time for it" over the last year. And, here's my list.

1. Working out
2. Cooking/baking
3. Reading books
4. Truly diving in and spending time in scripture.

And, I realized something - I've spend at least a year burnt out. Burnt out as a teacher. Burnt out as a friend/family member. Burnt out just as a person overall. And, that burn out has gotten in the way of the ultimate goal - Love God. Love Others. Make Disciples. So, I decided that I would use this time to work on making better habits in my life. So, after I made my list, I made some goals:

1. Run, walk, strength train at least once a day.
2. Cook at least one new dinner recipe and one new dessert recipe a week.
3. Finish at least one book every week.
4. Read my entire Bible through before we go back to school.

These are all things I have not made time for recently. And, I'm not sharing these to brag or to tell you that this is how you should use your time. But, I want you to really think - what are things you have not made time for that you maybe miss doing or wish you had been doing? Because now you have time. See, this is an opportunity for us to create habits so that when we return back to normal life we can love God, love others, and make disciples and we can do that well. So, sure, rest, binge watch that show you want to watch on Netflix, but most importantly challenge yourselves to do the things you would have been doing all along if you would have had time. And, maybe, just maybe, you'll find that when this is all over you actually enjoy them so much that you put them in your normal life schedule. Don't waste this season even if it is different than what you think it should be.