Freedom from Ice-olation

Freedom from Ice-olation

by Tina Yeager

“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds”

(Hebrews 10:24, NIV).

 

Isolation can chill even when we live with family. We hunker inside to avoid the invisible threat outside. Pandemic prevents us from gatherings with those who don’t share our DNA. Riots further halt interaction. Sea tempests preceding hurricane season mirror the tumult in the spiritual realms across our nation.

Fear and despair storm against us; we face these waves of terror in seclusion.

My disconnection began with a relocation a year earlier. Unable to integrate with our new community, I feel genuine empathy for others during this social ice-olation. We miss friendly hands to grasp in prayer. Lonely hearts cannot warm into a community embrace. Even neighborly smiles hide behind masks. I shiver even more with those burdened under familiar disregard because they suffered dismissal their entire lives.

Like so many, I despaired under this oppressive darkness for months. Some mornings I woke with such a heavy spiritual weight, I struggled to get out of bed. I questioned my purpose. How could I impact others when I couldn’t connect in my own community?

Now more than ever, the Lord reminds me of my fingertips. A writer’s tap on computer keys stretches beyond her doorway. I despair not because I suffer, but because I fail to reach out.

Empathy and outreach compel writers. We flex the cold from our knuckles and click a connection with people we’ve never met. Folks unlike us and yet children of God like us. With these in different locales who experience different treatment than we have known. Shedding tears as clear and true as our own.

We must extend Christ’s message beyond our hunkered down homes. We carry the cross from our beds to our desks, no matter the weight, and write to spur one another on. To share our pain and bear one another’s burdens. Our words have the power to convey love and inspire desperately needed works of healing. Let us consider how to love our neighbors with our fingertips, no matter how far those keysstrokes must stretch to reach them.

As we consider our freedom this month, let us embrace our liberty to write for the sake of Christ’s love. We rise each morning to oppose darkness and bondage and to spread his light and liberation. Wielding the radiance of his divine words can melt the frigid distance between far-away friends and neighboring strangers.

Lord, guide my words and actions to align with your heart. Use my fingertips and speech to serve your will in caring for others. Help me to melt into the arms of a larger family of God and warm those who need your embrace, too. Amen.

 

 

 

Award-winning author, speaker, licensed counselor, and life coach, Tina encourages audiences to fulfill their potential. She offers writing workshops through Serious Writer Academy, hosts the Flourish-Meant podcast, and is a mentor with Word Weavers International. Beautiful Warrior, her book on women’s esteem is available on Amazon. To connect with her, visit tinayeager.com.