Weird. Different. New Normal. Get Back to Normal. Unprecedented. Socially Distanced. Close Contacts. Masks. Cancelled. Postponed. Disappointing. Stay Faithful. Done with COVID-19.
This is not an article to rant about COVID-19, or a charge to implore people to stay strong and bear with it all. This is just an account.
In high school, I expected 12th grade to be the climax of my high school story. I went to a boarding school so I was looking forward to rooming with my best friend. It was going to be the best season yet in basketball and soccer. I would start in basketball and even with a less than talented team in soccer—it was going to be a blast. I might be chosen to be a captain. Maybe I’d even sneak in a high school sweetheart to have that idyllic “we met in high school narrative.” I would make the best memories. Senior year was going to be the pinnacle of my high school experience.
Let me give you a hint—it wasn’t.
I did not get to share a room with my best friend. A new, extremely talented girl joined basketball and I became the sixth on the team. I was not a soccer captain, and, to put it bluntly, our soccer team was clique-y and largely untalented. Moreover, I tore my ACL and meniscus mid-season. The loss of my presence on the team went unacknowledged. (Also, for those interested, there was no sweetheart.)
After writing that, I sound mopey, but bear with me. Where does your identity lie? This question is not unfamiliar to most of us. In high school, I had a plan. I had a vision, based predominantly on Hollywood high school movies, of what the ideal high school experience and senior year would look like. And it wasn’t that. Thank God. God doesn’t work in our neat little frameworks. He doesn’t say, “Oh! You’re graduating? Guess you missed out on that opportunity,” or “wow, wonder what your next step/decision will be.” Change doesn’t phase Him.
Our plans are like the basic pictures we were given in kindergarten to colour. Your teacher may have even emphasized to ‘stay inside the lines’ or ‘colour in the box.’ In contrast, God’s narrative for us is like the Sistine Chapel—dynamic, rich, 3D and breathtaking. But instead we ask God to mold our lives according to our wills. What a shame that would be if He did that—what a loss, what richness and depth of joy we would fail to experience.
This year may have disappointed you. It may not have been the peak of your time at Covenant. It may have been muddled with pain, frustration, and loss. The whole year might not even make sense to you right now. How on earth has God been faithful amidst all this suffering? He has, though it may not be clearly evident to you until tomorrow, or in a year, or even in ten years.
Things are at a more distinct turning point for sure, but though it may faze us, God is not caught off guard. Be at peace with this year not looking like you would have envisioned. Don’t wallow in the disappointment of missed events and strained relationships. Instead, take up the charge to bring that clichéd, but legitimate aspect of Covenant into whatever place you head next: good community.