Ian Long

4 yrs

Change your phrase! Look Up, don't Lockdown

Words really matter. The words and phrases which we repeat to ourselves over and over are like mini-meditations. In my Christian faith, I am urged to reflect upon God's words, which often run counter to the prevailing spirit of our current age.

The words which we regularly repeat to ourselves have a significant effect upon our thoughts, feelings, behaviour and spiritual dimensions.

'Lockdown' makes us think and feel limited, oppressed, captive and restricted. This has had a significant impact upon people in the UK - a doubling of people on anti-depressants, a doubling of recorded suicides and a doubling of mental, emotional and spiritual issues.

This period is real, and the rules affect us all, but our outlook matters all the more and can help us to see things with the eyes of faith. Each time that you hear the word lockdown, replace it with something to remind us of where we remain - in God's world, in God's plan, with God's Heaven and new Earth as our eternal destiny.

Each time I hear the word lockdown, I am replacing it with "Look Up" in order to feed my thinking, my feelings and my spirit with a healthy perspective. This was the way the apostle Paul saw reality, whether he was free to preach the Gospel or whether he was in literal chains. As he once wrote from prison, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice!"