By Guest Contributor: E. Taylor

Have you ever been lonely?  Loneliness is irrational and confuses us about who we really are.  Do not let loneliness dominate during this time of self-isolation.  Use this time to seek and search and welcome the new creation, new you with a new perspective and new outlook.  This is a time to share the Good News and the Gospel of Jesus Christ with yourself within your home and your family and community because building your faith strengthens those around you.  This is a time to focus on those virtues and characteristics that we have been wanting and talking about for such a long time.  Now is a time to go after them and pursue them with purpose and passion until they are ours.  Now is the time to fulfill those promises to ourselves, where we were just waiting to have time to do something or needing more time at home.  The time is here, and all we must do is walk into it and do it. 

Now is here.  If only is here.  I want, I wish – is here right now in front of us.  All of this is within arm’s reach, and now we must follow through on our part of it by committing to invest in self.  Now is a good time to be selfish, to invest in you, your relationship with God, and your relationship with yourself.  It always sounded so easy when we prayed, or hoped, or even imagined what could possibly be if only there was time for it.  

Now we have been given a time of refuge and solace and shifting away from the busyness and the routine of being caught up in and sometimes swallowed whole by life.  Here it is, the golden opportunity we have been waiting on for so long.  The question presents itself – what are we going to do with it now? How will we manage this time alone, time to ourselves, time away from others and other things, and time away from distractions?  We will not fall prey to loneliness but will wisely manage this opportunity of alone-ness.  

This is the opportunity of a lifetime, the chance we have been anticipating and expecting but disbelieving that it would arrive.  Now is the time to pursue God, to chase Him with all that we have, every fiber of our being.  Seek Him while He can be found.  Run, run, run!! Go get Him.  Grab hold to His Spirit.  He is here and within reach, just waiting for us to gear up and get into place.  As the deer pants and thirsts after the water, so should our souls be in pursuit of God (Psalm 42:1-2).  

Some of us are overdue for some “me” time, so let’s get it in now.  We will use this time of self-isolation to improve our lives and our relationships and to position ourselves into the place God will have us to be.  We will not focus on what we do not have or what we cannot do.  Our focus will now be on God and what He will have us do and become.