COVID-19 Lockdown – What have you been up to?

Below is a Bible-inspired thought on how we can make the most of this COVID-19 induced lockdown period:

Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God, for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him. And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no war in those years, because the Lord had given him rest. Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered. And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah who carried shields and spears, and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand men who carried shields and drew bows; all these were mighty men of valor. – II Chronicles 14:2-8 NKJV

King Asa started his reign on a very positive note. Immediately he ascended the throne, he demolished all the idols and other alternative totems of worship in his nation and led his people to serve the true God. He actively sought the LORD and because of that, God gave him rest for the first 10 years of his reign – no war, no rebellion, no battle, no unrest whatsoever in the whole country for a good decade. That was a long stretch of time in ancient or contemporary history. But what did Asa do with this peacetime? Please read that below:

And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no war in those years because the Lord had given him rest. Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered. And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah who carried shields and spears, and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand men who carried shields and drew bows; all these were mighty men of valor. – II Chronicles 14:2, 6-8 NKJV

The first thing Asa did was to build fortified cities, fortified walls, fortified towers, fortified gates and fortified bars. This was when there was no war. In other words, he started preparing for war in a time of peace. He started putting security structures and apertures in place when the land was at peace. He also built an army of 580,000 well-trained warriors, mighty men of valor, who were battle-ready.

Apart from this, he also mobilized the people to get productive and the Bible says “they built and prospered” during those years.

Now here is the contemporary application, the best time to prepare for war is when you are at peace. The best time to provide for famine is during the time of abundance (remember Pharaoh’s dreams and Joseph’s interpretations and eventual application), the best time to set up security for yourself, your family, career, business, ministry, etc. is during a time of little concerns when you don’t really need to. Doing this at any other time will only be reactive as against proactive. You will be playing catchup when you should be drawing from your stored resources.

To bring it closer home, the best time to get the most productive and fruitful is during a time of rest such as this novel Coronavirus lockdown period. The questions each of us should be asking ourselves every day of this lockdown period are, ‘What have I achieved, produced or completed today that will have a significant impact on my life, family, career, ministry, business and other concerns after the lockdown is over? What am I adding to myself today? Am I resting too much, sleeping too much, loafing too much, or engaging more in nonproductive activities, such as WhatsApp chats and other social media timewasters, as against doing things that will move me forward?’

As this COVID-19 induced lockdown persists, remember, the best thing to do in a time of peace is to prepare rigorously for war; the best thing to do in a time of surplus is to prepare adequately for famine. And the best thing to do in a time of rest is to get all your operations and productivity machinery well-oiled and raring to fire from all cylinders at the next call.

First published on April 22, 2020.

Copyright © 2020 Babatunde Oladele. All rights reserved.