Dear Post Covid-19 me,

There are a few things I want you to know. There are a few things I want you to remember. Yes, there are a few things I don’t ever want you to forget.

Firstly, people matter way more than products, positions, properties and pride. When COVID-19 hit, the social implications of that pandemic didn’t discriminate between rich and poor, the have’s or the have-nots. You could be a minimum wage casual worker, or a new small business owner, and just like that, you were forced to close overnight. You could also be the wealthiest restauranteur, the highest flying pilot, the most secure property investor, and in a moment, it was all taken away.

In the end, people were left with… people. Pilots became Dads again, and the only people sleeping through the night under their watch, were their kids. Restaurateurs now cooked for only their spouses, and property investors were now only investing into their relationships. The proud were now lining up with the humble for government benefits. Don’t ever let products, positions, properties or your pride get in the way of what matters most, the people around you.

Secondly, you’re never too busy or too important to serve and to sacrifice, and to stop for the one that needs you and that needs Christ in you. When COVID-19 swept our world, the needs in the community were highlighted and you were needed to serve. But now that COVID-19 is over those needs are still there, they are just less obvious. Keep looking for ways to serve, keep looking for people to love, keep stopping for the one that needs your attention. Keep sharing the hope of Jesus. Just because people may not be wearing surgical masks anymore, doesn’t mean they aren’t wearing masks at all.

Next, never take a hug for granted again. The same goes for travel, for handshakes, for having friends over for a meal, for church services, for concerts, for picnics in the park with your family, for your very life. COVID-19 killed young and old, male and female, the famous and the unknown. Every day is a gift, keep Christ and those around you at the centre of it all.

Fourthly, grocery store workers, delivery drivers, nurses and teachers are still essential and they are still heroes, they are still incredibly valuable post COVID-19. This isn’t just because they help keep our society running, but because they are made in the image of God. They are valued and known and loved by their creator, and they should be to you too.

Lastly, your family needs you to be as present now as they did back then. They thrived with you around then and they will thrive now still. Find ways to slow down, as you did then, and simply enjoy the gift that they are and be a gift to them.

Life may have gone back to “normal”, but you don’t have to.

You can embrace a new normal.

A more thankful, more meaningful, more opportunity-seizing, more life-giving normal.

You learned a lot through COVID-19. Now keep putting it in practice,

___

Originally published at The Scarboroughs.