Maybe you’ve contracted the coronavirus. Maybe you’re just ill with the regular flu, or a cold, or some other bug. Maybe you’re at home caring for an ill family member. Maybe you’re working from home, or taking classes from home, for the duration of the current outbreak.

In any case, if you find that your routine has changed and you’re at home more than usual (or, really, even if it hasn’t), here’s a prescription: Read your Bible.

Don’t pour over cable news or social media for the latest. Don’t binge-watch ‘Throne Games of the Walking Dead’. Just pick up your Bible and start reading, with an inquisitive head and an open heart.

And when I say “open your Bible”, I don’t mean open the Bible app on your device. I mean open your old-fashioned, printed, paper Bible. The one that won’t beep, buzz, or vibrate to pull your attention away. In fact, when you open your paper Bible, put your device in another room. Trust me – you’ll be just fine without knowing what that person you really didn’t like all that much in high school just had for lunch.

Don’t have a print Bible? Or don’t have one that you enjoy using? Then this is the perfect time to get one. Here’s one of my favorites – the Life Application Study Bible. This version of it is leather bound, so it lies flat (meaning you don’t have to hold it open as you’re reading, which just makes for more relaxed and enjoyable reading). If you wear glasses and/or are above 40 years old, I strongly recommend the “large print” version in this link, just to set yourself up for the future as your eyes continue to age.

If you don’t currently have one, find a church – one that actively promotes personal and group Bible reading/study. If you’re attending a church that’s not already actively encouraging you to be reading and studying your Bible anyway, find a better church. Seriously. Run, don’t walk.

Big, intrusive, life-interrupting events like the coronavirus can be understandably disconcerting, but they also offer a fantastic opportunity to slow down, take stock, and refocus. This just might be the divine tap on the shoulder you were needing.

Don’t pass it up.