My (Beth) husband Jon has just finished enduring a 10-day kidney stone ordeal. These are not new occurrences in our lives, but no matter how often they come, we are never prepared. Kidney stones are incredibly painful and incredibly unpredictable. The pain can come on at the drop of a hat and we are off to the ER. My #1 goal in caring for Jon in those moments is finding him pain relief. Once we've accomplished that objective, my next goal is to cancel all the phone calls, meetings, lunches and appointments we have. I have the same refrain going through my mind every time: what a waste of time.

We never have anything to show for kidney stones (except the small vial the doctor hands me after surgery). We have a week of wasted opportunities, regrets, and cancellations. But it strikes me that perhaps we aren't measuring productivity the same way God does. We often emerge from these episodes with compassion for others, new insights, and perspectives on suffering and a reordering of our own priorities. A different kind of productivity.

With the emergence of the COVID-19, many of you are experiencing these same feelings. You have had meetings, trips, and large events canceled. You are dealing with the uncertainty of how and when things will go back to normal. The disappointment of these missed opportunities is real.

But what if we reframed the word canceled? Because another way to use this word is the idea of “canceling each other out” where one action negates the force or effect of another action. In mathematics, an equation is balanced when one side “cancels out” the other side. So how can we reframe all our cancellations in this way? We are being forced to slow down and this slowing could help us “cancel out” some of the effects of our normally busy lives. What canceling out have we been in desperate need of?

God is still working during all these cancellations. Ken said recently, “When God pushes the pause button on our busyness, this is often a time when he wants to work on us rather than through us.” During seasons of transition, God is often doing a deeper work in us so he can do a bigger work later on. We don't become better people in haste – in fact, I'm not sure we do anything better when we are in a hurry.

How is God slowing you down? What areas of your life do you feel him gently nudging you to pay deeper attention to during this season?

“The wilderness as a classroom” is the title of a blog post that Ken wrote a few years ago. He notes that a study of the concept of “wilderness” in Scripture shows that while the wilderness is a lonely and hard place, it often is a place where we learn to rely more deeply on God and hear his voice more clearly. Do you feel that you have been temporarily “shelved” or taken out of active fruitful ministry (maybe because of the cancelations of ministry events or maybe because you are in language study)? This blog post might be worthy of re-reading.

Take advantage of this slower pace. Below is a list of recommendations for some deeper learning and reflection.

• Take one of your canceled events and replace it with a Day Alone with God.
• Practice the spiritual discipline of slowing-drive in the slow lane, get more sleep, plan buffer time in between meetings, spend extended time with people at meals, etc.
• Read deeply about a topic that has interested you recently. Check out the SEND U blog for recent book reviews on things likehttps://sendublog.com/Discipling in a Multicultural World.
• Review your IGP and look for new learning opportunities – an online course, a book series, online sermons, etc.
• Observe how your host culture is responding to COVID-19. What insights does this give you into their cultural beliefs and practices? How are they different from yours?
• Interested in learning more about yourself? Take a DiSC assessment, online Myers Briggs test, Enneagram test, spiritual gifts inventory or even the Cultural Intelligence Assessment (write Beth or Ken for details!)

SEND U welcomes Lynn Karidis to the blog as a contributing author. In February, Lynn wrote an excellent post on Burnout, including several helpful ways to practice good self-management. Take a few minutes today and note a few ways you could begin to practice some good, preventative self-care.

The Asean Center for TESOL (Thailand) is currently accepting applications for its next two rounds of their 5-week intensive ESL training: April 6-May 8 and June 29-July 31. Check out their newly updated website for videos explaining how this training could help you in your ministry.
Asia's Center for TESOL (Philippines) is also accepting application for the same program: June 29-July 31 and Sept 7-Oct 9.

Animism and Folk Religion

Join SEND's own Dr. Gary Ridley for this online course (March 22-29) that will unpack folk religion and how to address animistic topics from a Biblical perspective.