As we’ve navigated this valley, I confess that despite how great it has been (because, remember, valleys are awesome) there have been moments when I’ve forgotten where my hope lies.

To clarify, we’ve had a BLAST figuring out how to stay at home and make the most of what God has given us. We want to be obedient to His Word and not neglect meeting together and honor the authorities He has placed over us, so we’ve had to get creative in ways we would not have had to under normal circumstances. Coming up with a new normal has truly drawn us closer together as a household and, in many ways, as a church. So often in life when you’re stripped of what you think you know and what you assume you’ll always have, you realize you’ve actually been missing out on a lot and this time has taught us those lessons.

So what’s normal look like these days?

I’m still working three days a week. My position has become exponentially harder and busier as the credit union transitions to as many over-the-phone and online resources as possible (cue the call center department). Several co-workers have taken off time to stay home with their children who aren’t able to go to school so we aren’t able to meet the demands of the higher volume of calls and chats most of the time. At first this was more than a little overwhelming, but after about two days I very clearly realized that I can only do what I can do. So I treat each person like they’re the only person on the line and remember that everyone is a little confused and scared right now. My job is literally essential for so many people and God has gifted me this opportunity to be a voice of reason, peace, and hope to people that might not hear it from anyone else that day. It’s definitely humbling.

At home the rest of the crew has taken on the task of homeschooling and raising a five year-old every day. For four people who aren’t parents, it’s a task we’ve welcomed because we all have realized how much we have to learn and can grow through this process. “Training up a child in the way he should go” is no small task, so teaching and guiding Owen has drawn us together in our pursuit of the Lord as we work to steward the time we’ve been given with him in ways we could have never expected. And it’s really turned our home into the place we always dreamed it could be.

For years, we’ve known where we live and what we have here are our greatest resources. We’ve hosted at least a hundred guests over the past four and a half years and we’ve been meeting with our house church weekly since 2017. We thought we were using our home well. But, as Simon recently shared, it’s when you’re losing you learn the most. With no guests in the near future and rules and restrictions on where we can go and how we can use our time, we realized how much we took this place for granted and how much more we could do to glorify God with our space.

So we put our heads together and transformed our property into the church it was meant to be. We put up a volleyball net in the backyard. A picnic table that sat largely neglected has become our dinner table under a canopy we were only using once a month at most. Inside, we created a workspace for Owen to do his school every day and we raided Walmart for all the things we needed to stay home for the next month or more. Now you’re just as likely to trip over Nerf gun in the yard or spy a missed spelling word from a “treasure” hunt as you are to move over a Bible commentary or volleyball on the dining room table. We’re out catching lizards with a little boy, laughing over pizza in the evening breeze with our church members, running through the sprinkler to beat the heat…and we’re loving it.

But, this post is called transparency for a reason, so I have to be honest with you. Leading up to Easter I was struggling. I resented that I’d have to share my birthday with a five year-old. I was angry that my oh-so-sacred yearly tradition of hiking in the state park wouldn’t happen because the park was closed. I was desperately longing for quiet because the introvert in me, who spends her work days talking to people ALL DAY LONG, had to come home to more people, had a busy little kid running around on all my days off, and couldn’t go anywhere to just be since that’s not essential. Basically I was being a selfish brat.

But Easter arrived and I got up early as usual to sit with God and something happened. As my whiny heart longed for change even in the midst of what I knew were really good things, the Holy Spirit reminded me of all that God has done for me. From allowing me to live in paradise where being quarantined is really no hardship to blessing me with some of the best friends a person could ask for, He has done so much. But that wasn’t the point, because Easter and Good Friday remind us that none of those things matter.

It doesn’t matter that I have love and support from friends and family all across the globe. It doesn’t matter that I have a church that can still gather during these crazy times. It doesn’t matter that my husband of almost twelve years is my best friend and a leader who challenges people to become more like Jesus every chance he can. It doesn’t matter that even in a household where three people don’t have jobs, we have more than enough that we can share and bless others. It doesn’t matter that I can take my exercise in the jungle or along the ocean or in the mountains without violating any social restrictions.

None of that matters.

Because even if none of it was true, Jesus is still enough.

As I sat on my couch Easter morning while the rest of the house slept on, I remembered what I know is true, that God is good and His sacrifice was and is and will forever be the only thing that matters.

If everything in this life was stripped away. If I sat, as Job did, in a heap of rubble with every earthly pleasure ripped from my grasp, Jesus would still be enough.

And He’s enough for you too.

I don’t know where you are in the midst of this crisis. If you’re the parent stuck at home learning how to do a task you never imagined would be yours. If you’ve spent your last dollar praying for your unemployment to come through so you can buy food for your family. If you’re in health care exposing yourself to the possibility of death every day. I don’t know your circumstances, but I do know that no matter what they are, He is the only thing you need right now.

Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. He doesn’t require a thing for us to receive this mercy. Nothing. It is freely given and at the end of the day it is all we need. If we never return to our jobs, if movies are never filmed again, if we never leave this island because travel is prohibited, if the NBA is disbanded for good, if the world falls apart that is the one thing that will remain. God’s love for us and His sacrifice so we could be with Him forever will never change.

No wonder it’s called amazing grace.

So my prayer for you today is that you take time to remember what is true. Remember what is good and remember that this is not the end. Or even if it is the end of life as we know it, it will all be okay because we know the Author of Life and He is in control.

And He’s more than enough.