Personally Processing the Pandemic

Honest as can be, I’m not paying as close attention as some folks are to the minute by minute updates on this global health pandemic we’re in the middle of…or beginning of.  I’ve tried instead to watch the numbers as they go up and keep an eye on a couple trusted news sites.  Besides that, however, I’m trying to keep a safe social distance from mass media news.  And I think it’s allowed me to process at my own pace and keep a level-ish head through this strange season we’re navigating. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I have certainly had moments of expressed uncertainty and even fear, especially as I was sick for the first four weeks of this whole quarantine time.  But mostly I’ve tried to muse over these unique new realities in an unhurried manner in hopes of encouraging my faith. 

Below are some of the “mind meanderings” I’ve been processing though.  They are in no particular order at all.  Some are incomplete.  Some are more of a question than a comment.  Some are longer than others.  But all of them are genuine and it’s possible you might find one or two that will spur you to deeper consideration or offer some resolve where you have questions or simply give you something different to read in these competing days. 

·        While there is always something new to fear, fear is nothing new.  Fear is an ages old territory charted far more times by each of us than any one of us cares to admit.  It’s just that when we backtrack through the wilds of that territory, we always come upon something we hadn’t noticed before.  Here and now we have come upon this global health pandemic.  And like any newfound landmark in the territory of fear, we have been forced – this time as a global society – to choose from one minute to the next whether we will live out these days as slaves to fear or servants to faith.

·        This season of confinement is a real challenge for many folks.  Watching parks close and sports seasons be cancelled has pushed folks to the edge.  So far to the edge, in fact, that folks are getting cynical and sarcastic, frustrated and angry, unconscionable and self-centered.  We see it especially on social media.  What occurs to me though is how easy it is to whine and complain about our current situation, right up until we know someone whose health has been adversely affected by it.

·        The accounts of the early church in Acts have been interesting to reflect on.  In some respects we are now the church scattered and the practices we see in Acts 2:42-47 and in following passages can now become our reality.  We’ll need to be creative and it will feel strange, but I think there is some strong potential to be the Church that we see in those early days. 

·        As a species of people we have lived – generally speaking – with a sort of irreverence toward death.  With each passing day that we wake up alive, our indifference toward death increases ever so slightly.  It’s the out-of-mind-out-of-sight principle I suppose.  But then these seismic events – like 911 or another school shooting or a global health pandemic – they pierce our timeline right through; a big gaping hole, and we are confronted with the importance of having some resolve on the issue of death…  Where will I be if I die from this?

·        I’ve gone back to John 10:10 from time to time these days.  It is such a beautiful context with so much imagery from Hebrew Scripture to settle my soul.  Look it up once.  Who is it that comes to steal and kill and destroy?  Who is it that comes to give us life to the fullest?  I think it has been important for me to keep these two poles in view as I scroll through social media or when I’m out and about. 

·        For church folks here…  It’s easy to be lulled into this sense that “church,” or the Sunday morning and Wednesday evening programs are our spiritual vitamins.  Take one of these twice a week and you’ll be just fine.   But what now?  What happens when the church gathered becomes the church scattered?  Now is the season we get to sort out our personal spiritual development and devotion.  Is my faith alive and daily?  Is my faith weak and occasional; dead even?

·        One weight on my heart is leveled from Ephesians 4:11-14.  Paul says there that the work of the Elder – or Pastor like me – is to prepare Church folks for the work of ministry.  Well here we are in the strangest of seasons and I gotta go back and ask myself if I’ve done my job?  Have I served in such a manner that the Church scattered is now ready to minister and use their unique gifts in leading others to Jesus?  It’s just weighing on me, right there close by. 

·        Folks are going to die from COVID19 and never be counted.  They are the ones who we’ll lose to broken and lonely hearts.  I hope we’ll use our phones to call folks as much as we use them to like posts. 

·        “TP racers” (and food/supply hoarders) are utterly undeterminable as a part and parcel of a civilized race. 

·        It has seemed to me that actual health department websites are far more reliable than what someone says about a blog post on an article responding to the news’ reporting of health department information. 

·        Here’s a verse that I keep in mind:  “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body.  When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light.  But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness.  And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!” Matthew 6:22-23.  I will just set that one down there and you can pick it up after I leave. 

·        A couple things I am admittedly concerned about, though I stand in support of as they aren’t directly assaulting my faith…  One is that closing schools may have put thousands of kids into uncontrolled settings that may not be the safest place for them.  And another is that it has been awfully easy for government officials to make decisions with really far reaching effects.  Again, I understand these and support them.  But I’d be lying if I said they don’t concern me. 

·        I have learned many many times that comparisons aren’t helpful in most circumstances.  Early in the timeline of this health pandemic lots of folks were drawing lines of comparison between Influenza and COVID19.  I bought into the comparison on some levels.  Since then I can see the unequivocal disparity between the two. 

·        Paul urges Timothy, a young pastor, to “…first of all, pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings (read presidents and governors) and all who are in authority (read health officials and law enforcement personnel) so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.”  That’s from 1 Timothy 2:1-4.  Notice he says “first of all, pray…”  That has seemed like really good advice in these days.  And the result of “peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity” has seemed like a good goal.

·        And following from that last point, a great model for prayer is The Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13. 

·        This is all a mere moment in history; a remarkable moment at that.  The breadth of history reveals, though these events may alter the way we live – a new normal may emerge – they will not last forever.  This is one really important reason why we need to remember history. 

·        Meme’s and Tweets and status updates are not breaking news.  Yet it is amazing to me how these can so easily discourage my spirit. 

·        Hebrews 10:25 reminds us to not give up on meeting together.  While this feels like a distant reality right now, the context of the passage actually has some important things to say to us…  “Let us draw near” to God because of what Jesus has done.  We can do that still.  “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope” without being flakey in our faith, because God isn’t flakey in his character.  We can do that still.  “Let us consider how to stir up one another” to love more and do good for others.  We can do that still.  So just because we can’t meet together, doesn’t mean we can’t still be the Church!

·        We are confined or quarantined, but we are not contained!  We have freedom to get out and move about our neighborhoods and communities safely.  We can take walks up and down our streets and around schools and we can pray for neighbors and school kids and teachers.  We can meet neighbors from a distance and greet them; even pray for them.  Check in and see what folks need.  Mostly I’ve found folks just want to talk.  So learn to listen well.

·        My sense is those folks who are choosing to brashly and brazenly blast their disdain for these extended stay-home-stay-safe days do so less out of concern for local small businesses or the economy or even their constitutional freedoms, per their surface level expressions, and more out of an overwhelm from personal loss of things such as control or identity, and subsequently an unwillingness or inability to cope with it rightly. 

·        The Apostle Peter wrote us a couple letters toward the end of the Bible.  He has Christians in mind who are suffering, mostly under persecution.  So much in these books that is applicable these days.  A couple verses though that I’ve been thinking about are in 1 Peter 3:13-15.  Peter rounds out those verses with a commendation to be ready to share the hope you have in Jesus with others when they ask about it.  My sense is the way we maneuver these strange days can be a testimony to our faith in Jesus if we want it to be.  As it goes then, folks may pause and ask us about the life we live.  Oh boy, what a great opportunity then to share.  

·        To my Christian friends, this season of quarantine is proving to be longer than many of us presume to be able to bear. The pressure weighing down on us; the heat overcoming us, along with the rest of our community, feels greater and greater day after day. While some impacts of this time have yet to be fully realized, mentally and emotionally - even spiritually - the impact has become all too real for us all, for better or worse. May I simply encourage you to read 1 Peter 1:6-7 (or the broader context around it too). Let us all be reminded of the certainty that times like these will always test the genuineness of our faith, revealing it as either shallow or deep or somewhere in between, through our actions and attitudes. Be one who chooses for your faith to be proved genuine by expressions of praise and honor, therein revealing a faith that is daily growing deeper. Not only do we owe this to our Savior, who suffered for our sake. I think, in a time like this, we owe this to our neighbors, whom we are called to love radically.

·        The only practice I have ever found that truly quells my frustration – even anger – toward others is prayer; stopping in the moment (or sometimes beyond the moment) of frustration and interceding for whoever is the stem of it all.  I wonder if things could look different if, before lambasting our Governor for his seemingly insensitive and unqualified responses to this ongoing season of quarantine and shutdown, folks paused to pray for him…  Those who believe in Jesus and what he said about praying for our enemies, that is.  (Matt. 5:43-48)

Goodness, I have gone on for too long already.  Do forgive me.  Several more thoughts and questions I could share here.  I’m sure you have many more that are ruminating around your mind and heart.  I suppose, if it helps you, you may comment here or maybe just choose to sit and write something out yourself to share with others.