Lockdown Day 23: THE NEW NORMAL
One of the heroes of faith I had the privilege to meet was Alexander Ogorodnikov (see video). An ordinary man with an extraordinary God. In 1976, at the age of 25, Alexander was jailed for the first time. The legal basis for Alexander’s confinement was that his religious conviction was a mental disorder. Public protest however forced the Soviet authorities to release him.
Alexander was again jailed from 1978 until 1987, when he was released by Gorbachev under a new Glasnost policy. Shortly after the fall of communism Alexander returned to Moscow in 1995 and set up the Christian Democratic Union of Russia and the Christian Mercy Society.
For this humble hero of faith, a nine-year-lockdown was not an inconvenient moment of discomfort but a matter of life and death. And yet, in his cocoon of despair, Alexander was transformed from a caterpillar into a butterfly
It will be a sad indictment on any believer if we finish the lockdown spiritually in the same way that we started it. If there was no growth, no deepening and no broadening then it was indeed five weeks wasted.
For every Christian the ultimate goal on the journey of faith is not survival but transformation. It is similar than that of a caterpillar whose ultimate purpose is not to grow fat and comfortable but grow wings and beautiful. But there is one event that separates a caterpillar from being a butterfly: the cocoon of discomfort. It is no different in the life of a believer.
The caterpillar does not see the lockdown in the cocoon as an inconvenience but as indispensable on the journey of transformation. There is an understanding that there will be a new normal after the discomfort – the old normal has gone.
As Christians we need to embrace the discomfort and inconvenience of our individual cocoons we face in our lives. If we exit the cocoon still as a caterpillar it would have been wasted. If we are transformed it would have been worth it.
Richard Rohr says the following:
“The price for real transformation is high. It means that we have to change our loyalties from power, success, money, ego, and control to the imitation of a vulnerable God where servanthood, surrender, and simplicity reign. Of course, most people never imagine God as vulnerable, humble, or incarnate in matter. We see God as Almighty, and that vision validates almightiness all the way down the chain.”
So, endure, reconsider priorities and disarm old loyalties. If we continue life as normal after 5 weeks of lockdown, without scrutinizing our old alliances, we cannot expect to show any signs of being transformed.