A WHOLE NEW WORLD!

 Sometimes events totally define a particular period in human history. It will be difficult to remember the year 2020 in any other way except as the year of “Lockdown” as it has been characterized by Lockdown. Sometimes one wonders what this lockdown was really all about. Of course, it was not about Covid-19 much as that was the trigger event. I would rather think about it as God's way of giving the world a commercial break and resetting the timers; a time to re-steer and change course.

Many people are leaving the lockdown only to go back to their previous way of life and to their old agendas'. I personally wonder why I would cut out some of the things and habits established during the lockdown. Currently my life is healthier and more balanced. Each one must examine their lives and see the positive things that the lockdown brought into their lives and keep it that way. It would be a mistake to default to the old life after such a divine intervention in our lives.

The way we do church has significantly changed. The way we work has as well totally changed. The way we shop to a great extent too has changed. Family habits too have changed. Of course, human beings cannot survive without physical contact. However, there is new methods of reaching out that we have grown accustomed to over these couple of months which we must incorporate well in our lives; we only need to become better at it. Church schedules have changed somewhat to accommodate more online prayer meetings; in fact, church configurations in many cases have changed as well. Generally, many social meetings as well have become easier with online provisions meaning that we can actually do more with the same time. Literally the day has grown to almost feel like we have more than 24 Hours! So we can achieve more with some of the new methods of interaction that we have learned. Physical meetings and engagements must be left strictly for those things that demands that kind of interaction.

 Most people I know have been churning out more work and more hours of productivity during lockdown due to the online engagements, yet without the stress that sometimes comes with physical engagements. Of course, some will disagree with me, but I guess it is asking too much for me to expect otherwise.

Old habits die hard. For some people, once the countries started opening up, they have tried to do things the same old way they were doing them before. I muse sometimes as I watch these episodes; people trying to find round pegs in a world that now has square holes. This really shows you the true meaning of adaptation and how evolution eventually throws the non-adaptors out and very soon makes them extinct. I have seen churches trying to do things the same old way. I see many employers struggling to "normalize" the workplace. Many businesses are trying to get their old mojo back. One thing many of these non-adaptors don't realize, there is nothing normal about the events of lockdown 2020. The kind of switch that was flipped is the kind that has no reverse gears.

My personal resolution is not to revert to stuff I was forced to leave by the lockdown. There is a lot of good habits I have built up during this period that I now wonder why previously I found it hard to adopt. The world is now a totally different place than it used to be before the lockdown. Bringing old tools into a new type of battle today only leads to eventual defeat. Covid-19 has reconfigured the world and changed the battle field; this is not going back to the way it used to be. So, you had better re-configure, re-align and accept that the Covid-19 normal in many ways is really now the new normal.

A whole new world it is. The challenge is to relearn how to live. Will you?