It's the end of the world as we know it...
Life as we know it has changed. Which is how life goes, right?
The world is experiencing a virus and just like that, toilet paper is the new currency.
All joking aside, new cases are being reported and deaths are occurring. To real people. Always sad and worth vigilance on everyone's part.
The constant influx of "news" is overwhelming at best, but mostly confusing. Who can I trust? Did they do their math correctly? Is anyone NOT talking about it? We have all become epidemiological experts, greedy for that last package of paper products, and, let's just say, our best selves are certainly shining through. At the same time, there is encouragement, support, and "air high-fives" being shared even in the midst of "social distancing". There is good and there is bad and none of us is perfectly responding. We live in a fallen world and a world-wide epidemic certainly highlights it.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I have been all over the place including feelings of frustration, concern, annoyance, apathy, and compassion. I have rolled my eyes with post after post after post (after post after post...), I have deleted innumerable emails stating every organizations' obligatory stance on the situation, I have confessed and repented, I have reached out to help local friends, I have laughed at all the crazy memes, I have stocked up on non-perishables and gallons of milk.
While it doesn't matter a hill of beans what I think about the virus, there is one insidious symptom of this worldwide disaster none of us is immune to. We are a distracted people. We have all, at one moment or another, taken our eyes off the only One worthy of every breath we could ever breathe. Whether we are looking at our own belly buttons or toilet paper stash (we have to be responsible, right?) or at the effects around us (we need to care for our neighbors, right?), our gazes have been constantly shifted away from our God and His Sovereign control over ALL creation. When the world feels like it is falling apart, He has promised His presence. When we don't know which news source to believe, we can trust Him. When we feel frustrated, compassionate, annoyed, sad, alone, concerned, we can lay it all before Him and ask Him how to love Him and others in this moment.
I don't know what lies ahead, for our country, for our world. But the gospel rings true and applies to present tragedy and even future unknown: God rules, we sinned, God provided, Jesus gives, we respond. And that changes how our hearts love and respond to His love for us; it changes how we love our neighbors; it changes how we care for those we are responsible for; it changes how we think about our day and our present unexpected and perhaps undesirable circumstances; and it shifts our focus to an eternal perspective, knowing that,
The world is experiencing a virus and just like that, toilet paper is the new currency.
All joking aside, new cases are being reported and deaths are occurring. To real people. Always sad and worth vigilance on everyone's part.
The constant influx of "news" is overwhelming at best, but mostly confusing. Who can I trust? Did they do their math correctly? Is anyone NOT talking about it? We have all become epidemiological experts, greedy for that last package of paper products, and, let's just say, our best selves are certainly shining through. At the same time, there is encouragement, support, and "air high-fives" being shared even in the midst of "social distancing". There is good and there is bad and none of us is perfectly responding. We live in a fallen world and a world-wide epidemic certainly highlights it.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I have been all over the place including feelings of frustration, concern, annoyance, apathy, and compassion. I have rolled my eyes with post after post after post (after post after post...), I have deleted innumerable emails stating every organizations' obligatory stance on the situation, I have confessed and repented, I have reached out to help local friends, I have laughed at all the crazy memes, I have stocked up on non-perishables and gallons of milk.
While it doesn't matter a hill of beans what I think about the virus, there is one insidious symptom of this worldwide disaster none of us is immune to. We are a distracted people. We have all, at one moment or another, taken our eyes off the only One worthy of every breath we could ever breathe. Whether we are looking at our own belly buttons or toilet paper stash (we have to be responsible, right?) or at the effects around us (we need to care for our neighbors, right?), our gazes have been constantly shifted away from our God and His Sovereign control over ALL creation. When the world feels like it is falling apart, He has promised His presence. When we don't know which news source to believe, we can trust Him. When we feel frustrated, compassionate, annoyed, sad, alone, concerned, we can lay it all before Him and ask Him how to love Him and others in this moment.
I don't know what lies ahead, for our country, for our world. But the gospel rings true and applies to present tragedy and even future unknown: God rules, we sinned, God provided, Jesus gives, we respond. And that changes how our hearts love and respond to His love for us; it changes how we love our neighbors; it changes how we care for those we are responsible for; it changes how we think about our day and our present unexpected and perhaps undesirable circumstances; and it shifts our focus to an eternal perspective, knowing that,
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
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