The head or the tail ?

I was reading in the news somewhere yesterday that we could be living our lives like this, for the next couple of years.

Masks on wherever you go.

The new normal some are saying.  For us in Victoria Australia we are in the second week of a 6 week lockdown.  No traveling further than 5kms from home, curfew after 8pm at night, 1 hour out for exercise etc each day.... not easy.  

But what if this is our new normal ?  

What if for the next few years this is just how it needs to be to stay alive ?  

With our death rate rising each day it seems, and the cases reported higher than everywhere else in our country, its not the time to be complacent and ignore the warnings and guidance by government.

Some think its just a conspiracy, others are so fearful they can barely do anything anymore, and yet the threat is real, just ask those families planning funerals for their loved ones these days.

So what would you do if this is our new normal. ?

Will you survive ? Will you adapt ? Will you shrink back ? 

I need to answer those questions for myself, and I am not going to try and answer them for you. But our world has changed in 2020 and the way forward isn't as easy as it used to be.

I was thinking this morning, the ones who will win and flourish in this new environment will be the ones who adapt and find their niche in the middle of new methods and expectations. 

The ones who do business differently, work differently, live differently, create new habits and lose old thinking.

There is no point going into a new world with old world thinking. 

We have seen people try to do that for years and they just flounder. And eventually are stifled and worked around, sideswiped.

We need to take the best from the past, adapt it, modify it and embed it into the new normal so that we can also flourish. 

Whether that be church, work, sport, social life, home life or whatever it is.  

We may never be able to go back to the old normal. I am not even sure we will want to.

Staying on top is all about critical thinking and attitude. 

It’s about a decision to not fall to the bottom. 

It’s about a choice to be adaptable within yourself. 

To be always ready to change and modify your own mindset and actions to stay ahead of the game.

I see it around me, people who hang on to the past. a past that has gone and may never be able to return. People who say things like ...” Back in my day, or back in the old days, we used to...”  we may never be able to do that.

Were the old days that good really ? 

I think back to my younger days and some of my choices and decisions I wish I could change, but I don’t want to go back there.... I want to live out the rest of my life somehow making a difference and helping others ....especially to find Jesus.  I never actually wanted to do that in my early days.

So staying on top ?  Is a choice ?  

I think so. It’s a choice to say I am not going to live on the bottom, I am not going to wallow around in self pity and defeat.

I am going to do something each day to work my way to the top.... not at the expense of others, but rather alongside others who are also wanting to live at the top.

The top of behavior.

The top of faith.

The top of prayer

The top of love.

The top of grace.

The top of care for others.

The top of self care and self confidence.

The top of relationship with each other and with Jesus.

Who in their right mind would choose the bottom of any of those ?

There is the verse in the Bible which speaks about being the head and not the tail.  

Deuteronomy 28:13 

New International Version

The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.

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For me...thats what I want for me life...  think about that for a moment.  the head makes decisions to wag the tail. (of a dog) I don't want to be the tail, it’s the smelly end ... lol.

The world could easily be on track to never return to what we used to be.  It’s not alarmist, its potentially a new reality. How you live in that will be a head  and heart decision.  

You can rise above it, seriously you can. 

You can be on top.

It’s all a matter of a choice each and every day.