Though people have played up the loss and problems of COVID-19, which there have been many of course, much loss and much grief, nevertheless, I mentioned in my last post that we would tackle the other side of the coin and explore the growth that has occurred and the good things that have come out of going through this pandemic.

Over the next few post we will take a look at the GOD growth in individuals, families, and couples during the pandemic. I use the term GOD growth because God wants to bring about change in people that draws them closer to Him and that causes them to implement His Principles regardless of whether or not they have come to trust in Him for their salvation as of yet or not. God is about seeing His Will and His Principles come about in our society, in our homes, and in us personally before and after we enter that personal relationship with Him.

Individual growth will be the topic here. As stated in the last posting, “There has also been more time for individuals to take a good look at themselves, to explore their own inner spiritual person, come to terms with, and perhaps do something in response to, what they discovered during the isolation that God has allowed in their life.”

Crisis pushes crisis, meaning a societal crisis usually produces a personal crisis for people. When confronted with mass alterations in the societal landscape a person finds their personal life altered in many capacities, and underneath those alterations they find their inner life altered as well.

During this pandemic people’s movements have been greatly restricted causing them a loss in what many people use to escape seeing themselves clearly, “distraction[s]” of every type and usually in multiple degrees or quantities. People often search for anything that can help them avoid dealing with what is inside of them. During the isolation of this pandemic that just has not been possible thus resulting horribly for some people in despair and giving up, but for other people in self-reflection and growth.

It is extremely hard to be alone with one’s self, yet it is extremely healthy. Many very spiritual and godly people over the course of history have heralded the importance of a time of personal spiritual retreat with God to reflect, recharge, and seek growth in God. It is during the aloneness that God’s voice is heard most clearly by the majority of people, when most people’s insight and understanding is opened up the most. In the aloneness we find whether or not we like ourselves (or if we should like ourselves), and if not, we learn from God what to do about what we do not like.

From what I have understood from people living in relative isolation during the pandemic, that isolation has also brought with it a quietness of life, a slowing of their pace, a peeling back of the daily stresses of life and thus resulted for many individuals in an embracement of a quieter simpler less stressful life.

The isolation of the pandemic for individuals has not been all bad, it has produced personal growth, reordering of priorities, and recharging of one’s stress coping batteries.

I want to close each of this series of postings with a quote from the original post, “COVID-19 – God and Man at Work.”

“Blessings from God are not just material or financial more often the greater ones (blessings) are intangible such as growth and change.”