#MyPandemicStory: Following God’s prompting to Salt Lake City

By Courtney Grace Watson

“What if the circumstances we fear the most are the ones that will afford us the most abundance?”

I came across this question while reading on a flight in February, and I immediately wrote it as a note in my phone. I didn’t know why, but it seemed important. 

I looked at the note occasionally over the next five months. Every time I read those words they seemed important. 

Some days I would come across them on a random day and be stopped in my tracks. Other days I sought them out, questioning what it was about them that seemed to draw me to them.

During this time, I was considering joining a church mission team that was going to Salt Lake City to join a second church to share the Gospel. 

I hesitated, however. Fear crept in anytime I considered saying yes to this trip -- it was out of my comfort zone. I had only done service-oriented mission work before, never a mission specifically for evangelism.

And yet, I was so curious about the trip and felt the Spirit nudging me to go despite my fears. So I did.

Then the world seemed to fall apart as the COVID-19 pandemic closed businesses and moved travel plans. Suddenly, the trip seemed out of reach. 

THE POWER OF PRAYER 

Despite challenges and the spike in coronavirus numbers, however, I believed God was asking me to take the risk of travel. 

I can’t explain it, other than I felt this pull toward Salt Lake City.  I couldn’t shake it, this thought that I needed to get on that plane and make the trip.

So I did. 

The first night in Salt Lake, I joined others on the mission team to hike to a spot overlooking the area. When we reached the top of the trail, we prayed for the city and its people as we watched the sun set over the mountains. 

At this moment, I began to feel something shift. I knew I was in the right place.

The days that followed were spent largely in prayer rather than evangelism due to COVID-19.

We spent time at the homes of church members who had been unable to attend services in person, praying with them right there in their front yards, and simply talking with them and enjoying each other’s company -- properly socially distanced and with face masks, of course.

We also spent much of our time at places where we could pray for groups of people. We prayed over teachers and parents in the parking lot of schools. We prayed over local, state, and national government officials in front of the state capitol building.

We prayed over store workers and business owners at their workplaces. We prayed over areas of town the Lord had already been faithful to work in and areas of town we hope to see Him work in the future.

Through these days, the shift I felt on night one became a newly revealed piece of my heart that seemed to be breaking a little more with every “Amen.”

Honestly, I haven’t seen how the Lord will take these pieces and bind them back together, but I do know this: This trip that I feared for many reasons has in fact afforded abundance.

I saw how praying for members of the body of Christ and our greater communities is a powerful practice in connecting with the Lord, trusting in His faithfulness, and watching as He changes the hearts and lives of those lifted in prayer and those doing the lifting.

It reminds me of John 10:10, which says: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” 

ABUNDANT LIFE 

I’ve often defined abundance as a number in a bank account, a title printed on a desk, or a house full of people and possessions. 

But Jesus didn’t come into the world to give me my dream job or health or money or status. He came to offer life. He came to offer eternal life in the kingdom of heaven.

Looking back I can see that this question came to mind anytime I was trying to decide whether or not to travel to Salt Lake City, but I didn’t make the connection until now.

Through this trip and even through the fear that surrounded it, I found myself back at the foot of the cross, immensely grateful for a Savior who came to this earth to offer a life more abundant than anything I could find here. 

I realized the greater depths of the Lord’s graciousness towards me, a grace that has absolutely nothing to do with my own capacity. 

I saw the depth of my pride in taking for granted growing up surrounded by churches proclaiming the Word of God, being raised in a family who loved the Lord, and having the privilege of sharing the Gospel.

Above all, I recognized the faces of people who have not yet learned of such grace. 

The Lord was undoing my heart. He was shattering the perceptions of my own pride and worthiness of the Gospel, and in their place He was binding up a heart and a life lived on mission.

Courtney Grace Watson is the creator and writer of the Faithful Fireworks blog, where she encourages women to embrace their need for community and absolute dependence on God in all aspects of life. Her hope is that in every season women can come together and share fireworks of faith, telling of the goodness of God in bursts of beauty, and maybe even light new faithful fireworks along the way. In addition,

Courtney is an accountant for the Nashville Predators and co-leader of the Nashville community group of 4word Women. When she’s not crunching numbers or writing words, she spends her time watching hockey, eating ice cream, or dreaming of a white Christmas. Connect with her on Facebook, Instagram and by signing up for her weekly Made for Monday email series where she encourages working women by reminding them of the God whose image they bear.