April 24th, 2020: Oh Lord...How Long?

 

 

"I feel so restless" is what I am hearing more and more as the shutdown continues. We have different manifestations for restlessness. Some are easier to identify than others. As the weather is getting warmer and becoming nicer, the need to be outdoor and to do things with others is becoming greater. Restlessness is now becoming the greatest challenge for physical distancing. But is it really because of it or something else?

Restlessness might be a result of emotional emptiness. We have the need to be filled by others' presence. We hope that it can be overcome by our connection with others. We get busy filling every moment of life with people and activities. However, we might still be alone in our own thoughts at the end of the day. It appears as if no one actually understands us.

Restlessness can be a result of a loss. It can be a loss of life, loss of love, loss of identity, and loss of hope. People, I have been talking to, have experienced these types of losses. We long to have things the way they used to be. We are preoccupied with our losses that we have no ideas about how to engage the future.

Personally, I feel restlessness when I cannot hear God. There are so many other voices that distracted us from hearing God. We feel as if God is absent or He forgets that he created us. It is the restlessness of our soul. It might just be we have removed God from the center of our life. Uneasiness and anguish now play an important role in our responses to life.

"Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am pining away;

Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are dismayed.

And my soul is greatly dismayed;

But You, O Lord—how long?

Return, O Lord, rescue my soul;

Save me because of Your lovingkindness."

(Psalm 6: 2-6)