15 April 2020

The other day I was teaching my grandchildren how to play a card game called patience or solitaire. We have been asked to distance ourselves from people because of the covid19 virus so have to come up with games and activities for the kids to do.

Our family unit cannot go to a park or out anywhere, so we are becoming very inventive for stuff at home. Home picnics, home camping, cooking, shuttlecock or badminton, soccer against the brick wall and then inside games or things to do as well. And so, these card games have begun.

Solitaire is such an appropriate name when we have to put ourselves into voluntary isolation. But while we are social distancing, what about the human contact that we all need? What about using emails, FaceTime, letters, phone calls to teach and connect with people? What about gifts of crossword puzzles, cards, sudoku, to be delivered? Can we send books or magazines? Can we send audio books?

For discipline in concentration camps they often put prisoners in solitary confinement as torture. They often were trying to break them so they would talk. Does this solitary time break people?

Oh dear, my heart goes out to all those not coping. For some, this solitary confinement is like torture.

Can we afford to buy an iPhone for the elderly relatives in nursing homes or in houses? Can we ring them regularly? Otherwise who can we visit right now? This may turn into months of aloneness. Can we use the smart TVs to put on programs that encourage them, speak to them, love them where they are so isolated too?

In Italy I saw someone was playing bat and ball with someone else in another unit through a window. Singers/musicians were entertaining neighbours from their balconies or their letterboxes. Just so we are not alone, what can you do?

With God we are never alone. Never in Solitary. Jesus, the son of God, means Emmanuel – God is with us. Oh, that makes me feel great, makes me feel not alone, but not just feelings – the truth is He is with me.

Place your 2 fingers together – He is That close to you. And if you feel He is not, invite Him in. Scripture says, “draw near to God and He will draw near to you,” because God is a respecter of our free choice, He waits for the invitation.

So, in this silent, “solitaire time,” let us call upon God. Maybe we need to share with others that God is also with them in their aloneness. Call upon him and He will come. Maybe send them a bible, read them some scriptures over the phone, write and send them some powerful scripture verses that may help them know and find God.

Many years ago, in America, a prisoner called John Poynter was stuck in confinement for bad behaviour and was given a book to read. The book was the bible. His first reaction was to throw the book at the wall of the cell. But after a few days, out of boredom and frustration, he picked it up and started to read. He did not fully understand what he was reading but he kept reading. Then a week later another prisoner who was getting out from confinement next door gave him a gift. A radio. To his delight, he started moving the knobs to select a station but the only one that worked was a Christian radio program.

This is a true story. The preacher on the radio was just about to read some scripture and talk on the passage. John was blown away! The exact same passage he had been reading in the bible was the one the preacher preached on that night. The prodigal Son. God came to John in that confinement of his prison cell – where he was all alone and showed him, told him that He, God the Father, loved him and was giving him a second chance, actually, we know it could have been a 3rd, or 4^th chance.

God used that solitary time to reach John. When the guards came to release John back into the normal prison cells at the end of 30 days in solitary confinement, they noticed a changed man. He was peaceful, not angry anymore and he was polite. He was changed.

Now the story did not finish there, but what do you think God could do for all of us in solitary? Are we open to being changed for the better? More loving of our family members? More tolerant? Giving of grace and forgiveness like God does to us? God can use all things (even viruses, social distancing) for good. He can turn things and people around for good when the enemy wanted to cause destruction. 

And that’s what the Resurrection Power of Jesus does. Turns things, circumstances and people around. From death to life, from hopeless to hope and yes and amen, from no way to all the way.

Our God the Saviour, whom we celebrate this Easter Season, has risen! I must remind myself in this solitary time that we are an “Easter people and hallelujah is our song!”

May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’

Love

Rosemary

Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups. If you would like more information please click HERE.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Does this solitary time break people? So that we are not alone, what can you do to help others?

What do you think God could do for you during this time of being solitary?

Are you open to being changed for the better?

Can you be more loving of your family members? More tolerant? Giving of grace and forgiveness like God does to us?