Author: Hannah Grant, Youth Leader
Hey Undivided Family! Gosh, we miss all your faces and being able to be together in the same physical space. Quarantine is weird, and I for one am so looking forward to the day where UD can be back to normal. For now, we have an awesome opportunity to connect and engage digitally with one another and make the best of the situation that we are all in. Praise the Lord for 2020 technological advances, am I right? I want to talk to you guys about the topic of serving and how we can still continue to serve one another from our homes during this time.
Galatians 5:13-14 says “For you were called to freedom. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” I want to focus on the word freedom here and apply it to our current situation. We all were just given an immense amount of freedom or “free time,” schools are closed, businesses are closed, we are not allowed to hang out with friends, we have so much time that we don’t even know what to do with it all. I would venture to guess about 90% of us are sleeping in until 10:30, eating about 11 times a day, maybe taking 3 naps…all good things; but is that what we should be doing with all of our free time? What I pull from this scripture is to use the freedom given to us by this current circumstance for good and for God.
At Undivided, we believe in serving one another and we encourage our students and community to serve. But how can you serve others when you can’t be physically with them? This is a question I had to ask myself during this quarantine process. I’m heavily involved in church and school, I love being around others and I love serving. I had to adopt the mindset that though serving may look different right now, it doesn’t mean it’s impact changes. We live in a day and age where technology is EVERYWHERE. We get to choose how we engage with it. Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with scrolling through Tik Tok or Instagram, but are we checking in with our loved ones? Are we calling up our friends and asking them how they are doing? Are we praying and talking to God? Many of us, myself included, fall short in this area and may not realize that this is such an easy and applicable way to continue serving one another during this time.
When I breakdown how we can continue to serve others right now, I can think of two things that we can all implement into our lives. The first is, check in on one another. Not being able to be in the physical presence of people is hard, and if you are 400% extroverted like myself, it is even harder. Usually we would check in and catch up with our friends at school or when we hang out but since we aren’t doing that right now, we can easily forget ask someone how they are doing. Social media, texting, Facetime, Zoom, carrier pigeon, are all ways that we can continue to check in on one another. Chances are if you have been struggling during this pandemic, your friends are too and I think we can all agree that we need people to lean on and point us to God when we are struggling.
The second way that we can serve others is by praying for them. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it is too easy to fall out of the habit of praying and allow spending time with God to fall on the backburner. We all have people in our world right now who are afraid and need the presence of God in their lives. Deuteronomy 31:8 says this “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Scripture is telling us that God has already gone before us and has seen Coronavirus through, He knows the ending and has already won the battle for us. We have the ability to share and lean into scripture with our friends. Sure, it doesn’t look like 20 students gathered around a Starbucks lobby table at 6 a.m., but as I said before, just because things look different right now doesn’t mean that they have to be different.
We love you Undivided and all your leaders are here for you! Continue connecting with others, checking in on them, and praying for them.
Undivided Youth 