In today’s current climate of lockdowns, social distancing, working from home, home schooling, being furloughed, unemployment due to Covid-19 we can start to wonder what is the meaning of life?

I suppose if asked in the street the quickest and easiest response would be Luke 10:27 “And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” [ESV] And if the person asking the question were a non-believer it would hopefully start a meaningful conversation of what we believe and why.

But as followers of Christ how are to live this verse out in our lives during and post lockdown? In my opinion this falls into two distinct actions, the first action being your personal relationship / walk with God. To love God with all our heart, soul and strength which requires commitment, spending time with Him, trusting him for providence.

In Revelation 3:20 God says “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” [ESV] God created us in His image which is love, and we the church are His bride. God wants to spend time with us and we should want to be with him. As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” [ESV] 

The second action is loving our ‘neighbour’ (not just our literal neighbour), during lockdown this can just be sending someone an encouraging text, email or even a letter. Post lockdown there are going to be many people who will be afraid to go out because they’ll be afraid of contracting Covid-19 For some, seeing people approaching them wearing masks they may find it off putting / scary because in the past when someone approached you wearing a mask it would usually be a warning indicator that life was about to go sideways pretty quickly. For these types of people we will need to be patient, compassionate and understanding, offering to pray alongside them. Which Paul instructs us in his letter Colossians 3:12-14 “¹² Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” [ESV]

For some they may disagree with me and have their own personal idea to the meaning of life, whatever we believe we need to make sure we can back up our beliefs in Scripture, with it not being the current ‘catchy phrase’ being said in the media.

This week take time out to reflect on what you believe to be the meaning of life, and reflect on how you’ve been loving your neighbour recently and does God want you to change this.

All Bible verses, links have been taken from http://www.biblegateway.com