COVID-19, An International Lent

The Coronavirus is pretty hard to adjust to, don't you think? It's challenging our assumptions and forcing us to be uncomfortable. It is a barrage of changing information by the moment. Conspiracies, as they always do, seem even more plausible. We are also challenged to not think so politically, to look at life as to what is actually effective. Doomsday is also ever-present in some folks minds. The truth is is that we really don't know. We are being forced into the present moment. A moment often filled with anxiety.

I do not experience God as the micro-manager of our lives. I also believe death is not a big deal to God. This is hard for us because we haven't seen the Risen One for 2000 years and believe and trust in this Unseen One. Death has regained part of its scariness in that time even if we have hope. God has a habit of silence and communicates through the Spirit by intuition which can be hard to discern at times. God reaches us but it is rarely super direct. God almost always reveals themselves in weakness these days, not power. Otherwise the faith healers would be packing the sick in and making a great testimony but reality reveals the holes in our belief systems. Yet we trust we are not alone. We are a people of hope. Our faith may feel as small as the mustard seed when everything seems upside down.

COVID-19 has forced a giving up of so much. Our freedom must be limited. We are facing our mortality. Ver much the focus of lent to the extreme. I can't say I like it. There is such a beauty in having the freedom to fast from something rather than having it imposed. It is so very different.

We can see the harm that is coming by selfishness and disregard for neighbor. We demand normacy even when none is present. It is both sad and scary to watch. The spring breakers behaving in such a way that all is normal give me particular pause. I lost my mom earlier this year and mass loss will be very hard to take. We all felt a bit invincible once.

Most of us are rocked by this situation or will be soon enough. Take time to grieve and acknowledge any doubt you have. It doesn't mean you don't have faith, it means you are human. and place the smallest amount of trust and faith you have in God. God loves us. God pulls value from suffering. During lent Christians anticipate the crucifixion in which the Creator was nailed to the cross fully vulnerable to whatever evil befell him. All our illusions of control are being quickly revealed. May we heed the warnings that remind us of our weakness. Remember the tiniest seed of faith produces more hope than any amount of despair

We are an indulgent people being asked to not take more than we need. This is not easy. Hoarding feels like the safe thing to do. We are entitled, most all of us in the USA. We are taught rugged individualism from our youth. Today we need each other. We need all of us to care without a personal agenda. We are a people of hope. We watch and wait for our Lord at all times but it is not for us to know the specifics. When we think we do know, we become dangerous. We scapegoat. The religious authorities of Jesus' time knew everything, they thought, about messianic prophecy yet they killed him anyway.

Hebrews 13:17

"Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls and will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with sighing—for that would be harmful to you."

Romans 13:1

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God."

We need to follow the guidelines from our government.

Now is a time when this scripture makes the absolute most sense. No one is benefiting from this pandemic. Not even the richest in the world benefit from anything hinting at a depression or recession. We must listen to the scientists, doctors and the actual evidence. Follow the news and government orders but not to the point that it is your only focus. There is so little that can be done.

In all likelihood this will be a challenge that defines the world for sometime. Its always possible that the Lord will bring about the total renewal of all things. We are not a people who embrace the end but rather the future.

The kingdom is still come as we learn to love differently in our quarantines and through social media. We can choose life or death. Community and love or isolation and fear. It will look different than in the past. Oh,what a celebration we will experience when begin to gather together again! We look forward. We are not left as orphans.

You are loved, let this fact water the seed of your faith.