As the dawn of a morning brings the hope of a fresh start, so Mondays bring the hope of a week of opportunities. (acknowledging that the beginning of a week can be fluid, subject to factors too numerous to mention here) This week as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take its toll within and outside our borders, and responses to it remain tentative or still in negotiation-stages, I am returning to the questions posed in my last post. Societal norms have been interrupted such that millions face the new week with continuing uncertainty about how best to live, what strategies to employ to avoid contagion, and the greater questions of what rests at the core of this interruption? What divine purpose is being served by this intrusion?
While I don’t claim to be a biblical scholar of seminary training, I do claim my identity as a follower of Jesus Christ, a modern day disciple of the one who turned the world upside down some 2000 years ago with the preaching and teaching of a gospel that lives today. Such a belief system allows me to look at any and all of life’s challenges beyond their surfaces; to ask the fundamental questions that guide our faith – the questions noted above.
As I’ve noted, the Lenten study book, Interruptions, directs us to a different perspective when we face circumstances as we do now. This pandemic has interrupted and disrupted. But somewhat slowly in the midst of such, we are discovering that there can be value and lessons inherent in what on the surface appears nothing but devastation. Yes, some are in ICUs struggling to recover; some are quarantined hoping to recover outside the hospital; some have tested positive and are waiting; some as God has allowed have died. These facts and others are threats to our well-being, our sense of safety and security. But alongside the pale of these realities, characteristics long lost in our modern world are emerging. As Spring 2020 offers its recurrent themes of rebirth, renewal, hope, and love, the opportunities within this 2020 interruption and disruption offer similar. Through the technological advances of our times, familial and friendship ties are being renewed; in some instances rebirthed after years of estrangement. Long ago societal practices of intentional caring for the vulnerable in our communities sprout and like bulbs that are covered in the darkness of the soil come to life in the warmth of Spring. People of professed faith seek to practice it with renewed effort in their actions, and not just their words. Prayer intensifies in churches and synagogues and mosques. Biblical words of hope carry greater weight in times like these. Bibles get dusted and opened! And perhaps most importantly, we of faith communities come to realize that the God in whom we trust, in whom we believe, whom we acknowledge as sovereign over the world He created has not ceased to love us. This pandemic offers us the opportunity to grasp that tenet of what being a Christian really means. In good times and bad, when tragedy strikes and when the winning numbers fall, whether sick of well, rich or poor, overrun by a virus or virus free, God has not forsaken His people. He loves us. He may allow circumstances we don’t understand to happen, but He doesn’t allow anything He can’t control to destroy His people. Reflecting upon this Christian truth will see us through. Don’t turn your nose up at the opportunity to do so. Seize today the opportunities this interruption has caused. Love the Lord with all your heart, mind and spirit; and your neighbor as yourself.
Love. Joy. Peace.