Pandemic 2020 – 1, 681,793 Cases/ 98, 933 Deaths to date in the US.
As you’ve no doubt noted by now, I am not posting as often. It’s not neglect, but rather time management or the unexpected that push the blog to the back burner. Thankfully today I’m back in the saddle. Imagine a smile emoji here.
As you also note, I am including now at the beginning of each posting the most current pandemic statistics as reported on CNN. They help us remember this battle is not over; even as across the nation we are lifting safety protocols in an effort to return to life as we knew it four months ago. I embrace the “wait and see” perspective; hoping the lifting of restrictions doesn’t produce a viral resurgence, that cases and deaths do not spiral upward.
Two scriptural references are helping me in my hopes for a downward trend in both of these markers. I read them in one of my devotionals this morning. “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” (Romans 13:14) “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” (Colossians 3:12) Both as citizens of this country and inhabitants of the world at large, we have experienced a crisis beyond our abilities so far to control. It’s hard to fight an invisible foe. And it doesn’t help that the microscopic images of it somehow remind us more of chemistry or biology lab experiments than an enemy intent upon destroying us. Yet that weird looking thing is deadly; its capacity to destroy both body and spirit a reality. It is the latter that draws my attention today.
The majority of us have accepted that masks and as needed, gloves, serve as protectors of our physical being. We physically distance as another precautionary practice and adhere to mom’s ageless admonition, “Wash your hands!” like programmed robots. These new norms are ways we address this abnormality. The scriptural references are another. They point to the protectors of our spirit- man/woman, needed as much if not more during a pandemic. The key word in both is “clothe.” Where the masks and gloves and hazmat suits protect the body, clothing ourselves in Jesus Christ’s spirit and the fruit of the spirit will protect our souls. Soul protection is key to our survival. No manner of secular garments can prevent indifference, mean-spiritedness, pride, coarseness of speech, lack of compassion, and impatience driven by greed. Only the fruit of the spirit of Jesus can do that. Victory over the pandemic will come in two ways. Vaccines and medicines will stop its physical impact; clothing ourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience will blunt its impact upon our souls.
Love. Joy. Peace.