This World Doesn’t Have to Change You

Life looks different now.

Remember back to 2019 and imagine for a moment that someone told you the majority of 2020 would be spent socially distant with masks on. Would you have believed them?

And yet, for most of us, it’s become a way of life now. We look at a picture like this one and don’t see anything strange about it. But a year ago, this photo would have stopped us in our tracks.

The truth is, the human brain and consciousness is so incredibly adaptable.

We were created to be able to plopped into a variety of circumstances and environments and make the best of them. Sometimes it seems like this ability works against us as in Stockholm Syndrome or social media feedback loops, but it’s always just trying to keep us alive.

What we cannot miss is that this change does not have to, and in fact should not, change who we truly are.

Just because the world looks different, doesn’t mean we have to compromise our love for one another, our commitment to faith, our unwavering hope for a better world.

So I encourage you, develop holy rhythms to reorient you back to who you know yourself to be. Meditate, pray, call friends, FaceTime with family, attend church virtually, have a lunch date in parked cars in a Panera parking lot, whatever it is, find yourself.

Because if practice the sacred art of knowing who you were created to be, nothing, no pandemic or other adversity, can change that.