WE ARE IN A TIME OUT

What is time out? Time out is the time children are asked to spend in their rooms, on the stairs or in a particular location in the house alone, because of bad behavior. My generation, in the culture I grew up in, did not use time out. Misbehavior received verbal scolding and or corporal punishment. The West is quite good at putting misbehaving kids in time out. I’m not quite sure what they accomplish with that, and if the end result is what they set out to achieve. I think their hope though is that the child would mend his or her ways, because of the loss of play and fun time.  

Focus on the Family says, “As a general rule, time outs aren’t meant to function as a method of punishment. Instead, they’re a way of allowing the child’s reasoning powers to catch up with his emotions. The main idea is to communicate, teach, and encourage reflection.”

“Exactly what happens when you give a misbehaving child a ‘time out’? You simply pull him out of the action and tell him to cool his heels for a while in a quiet, isolated setting. In this way, you force him to stop, take a deep breath, and think about what he’s been doing. You give him a chance to spend some time trying to understand the reasons behind the household rules.”

Having said all that, what do Christians think about the current healthcare crisis with COVID-19? There are a number of views on the topic: Some think God is punishing the world, others think He is warning us, or the end is near. What do you think? I want to look at it from the following viewpoint: God wants us, His children, to step back, reassess our lives, and make the needed changes to better our relationship with Him and with each other. He has granted us the opportunity and time in the form of a lock-down and quarantine. Now let’s go to the Scripture to see how best we can do this.

Jesus spent time with His Father quite often, because He loved and respected the Father, and would go to any length to please Him. His death demonstrated that. We need to fall in love with God all over again, to a point where we’ll want to be constantly in His presence. How are we achieving this type of closeness with the Father? With the extra time that was suddenly dropped in our laps, are we still rushing through Bible reading and prayer, treating them as chores, or activities to check off a list?

We are in time out for a reason, “Then if my people who are called by name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT). I believe seeking His face is not a quickie: it’s SEEKING! It takes time and a broken heart; we are in time out to seek His face!

When Daniel learned from reading the Scriptures (Jeremiah 25:8-11) that Jerusalem was supposed to lie desolate for seventy years, and it had been almost that long since they went into captivity, he went into voluntary time out. “So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting … I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed … But we have sinned and done wrong… This is true of all of us … We make this plea, not because we deserve help, but because of your mercy. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act! For your own sake, do not delay, O my God, for your people and your city bear your name” (Dan 9:3-19 NLT). I believe this is how we should seek the Lord—repent, confess (individual, family, and national sins), and plead for healing!

When God graciously answers our prayers, may we not fall back into our old ways of haphazard living and service; may we seek to do His will in His way, and look forward to His return with great expectancy! Let’s use this time out wisely and productively to get to where we need to be in our relationship with Him and with each other!