When the coronavirus was at its height it seemed that every time I felt a little warm or got a cough, my mind wondered if this was it. As we know the CDC issued lots of information about warning signs. The presence of a high temperature is one of the key indicators. Unfortunately, since my children are adults, we had not had a thermometer in our house for years. So, as I do for most things, I went straight to Amazon to look for a thermometer. Turns out, several of my Amazon co-addicts were doing the same thing as thermometers were in short supply or the prices had been jacked up. Somehow my husband found one and it arrived a few weeks later. And now, honestly, I don’t think we have used it since we tried it out the first day. I am grateful for this because I know that many of you reading this have been impacted by friends or family who has lost people in your sphere by Covid-19. We have felt this loss in our home also.
I get allergy shots to deal with the seasonal gift of the yellow gold we have here in North Carolina, also known as pollen. My doctor’s office has been scanning me with the thermometer gun wand for weeks now before they allow entry into the office. Now our state leadership has started to develop a phased approach for re-opening our state, one of the areas of interest for us is when our local churches can begin to gather physically. One of the conditions may be the checking of temperatures when people enter facilities.
My husband serves in a leadership position in our church and he mentioned ordering thermometers. But you know, I didn’t really give it much thought. But today when a box arrived from Amazon, my first thought was “I don’t remember ordering anything.” Okay, I admit, I do have a bit of a thing for Amazon. Y’all pray! Anyway, this time it was a package for him. Inside were two wand thermometers. For some reach it struck me funny that we’re going to have to check the temperature of the saints before they can enter the church! Shouldn’t we have been doing this before? I’m not talking about body temperature as an indicator of fever but heart temperature as an indicator of passion for God.
During this shelter in place moment, I’ve been giving a lot of thought and prayer to transformation. I mean I don’t really want to come out of this being the same as when I went in. What’s the point of that? This period is an opportunity to grow. Normal is not a state for which I want to subscribe or settle. I’m crazy enough to believe that God has called each of us to be hot for his purpose for us. I will admit that I was hesitant to do a search on “hot for God.” (The internet can be a good thing, but you just never know what a search string will return!)
However, I did land on a few that spoke to my spirit on this topic. Romans 12:11 says that we should be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Then, Revelation 3:15-16 tells us it’s better to be one or the other, hot or cold, but just don’t be lukewarm. This time of being at home is giving us time to get our heart temperature together. The change that we are experiencing is forcing us out of our comfort zone and into our growth season. We have this grand opportunity to come in hot for Jesus after this is over. Think about it. In your own life when has your greatest transformation come but after a season of great transition? It would be a shame for us to come out of this and be the same lukewarm, normal, and complacent selves we were before, wouldn’t it? So they can wand me if they want to after this and I pray my bodily temperature is 98.7 degrees but I sure hope my spiritual temperature is hot!
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