Be Ready for Something New

In Virtual Conversation with...Linda

I met this beautiful lady who inspired me with her stories. She wants to leave a legacy of love as her mum did. She writes an amazing blog about her experiences of growth with God and her lockdown story is another inspirational one…

I am not only grateful for the time of lockdown but for using the time to change.

For me, Linda, the biggest change in my life since the first lockdown in 2020 has been growth. What helped me during the lockdown period was having people support me and moments with God. I didn’t use to have quality time with God. I started doing a Bible study daily and spending more time with God. It helped me to deal with certain thoughts and worries in moments when I felt alone. For example, a lot of singles like me now face new challenges; 'how am I going to meet people?' It seemed there was no way to meet people and I had a sense of anxiety and worry, because I was not able to go out with my friends like I would have done before. Fortunately, God helped me through my connect group. A few of us struggled with the same things, and we were able to come together, pray and fast about it. God used the group to help me make new friendships amid lockdown. I did not expect a community to support me so amazingly throughout my struggle.

Lockdown made me think of my environment and how I needed to change it. I had never planned to leave the place I was living in during lockdown. God showed me things that I had to endure. I started to think about how it had affected me. With my previous living arrangement, I did not have access to a garden and I was focusing on other things but not my home. “Reflecting on lockdown, I am not only grateful for the time, but for having the time to change.”

The most difficult thing to cope with during lockdown was that I didn’t make the decision to go out or stay. I would have probably chosen to stay at home, but ‘someone else’ made the decision for me about where to go and not to go. It was very difficult.

I tried to remain active; calling my work colleague and going for walks until he was made redundant. Then I started going to my cousin’s house and working from there.

The pandemic helped me reflect and think about certain things. I started to realise that church is not a building, but people. We connect as a group- that is church. It helped me realise that my relationship with God is not dependent on church. A lot of people go to church but do not necessarily build a relationship with God.

If I could go back in time to January 2020 before lockdown, I would tell myself to be open-minded, trust that things will be different, be ready to connect with God in a different way, be ready to do my job differently, and be ready for something new. Be ready!

LINDA