It has been a little more than a month since the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has reached pandemic proportions forcing the United States (along with the rest of the world) to come to an abrupt and unexpected halt. All of the sudden, businesses, industries, public establishments and even houses of worship have had to change (or even cease) the way that they conduct themselves. Our world as we have known it, constantly spinning and speaking, has changed. Work meetings and social dates have been replaced with shutdowns and social distancing. “Must See TV” is no longer in the evening but often in the afternoons as elected officials are attempting to provide people with updates and pertinent information. Rubber gloves and face-masks have become standard dress for the day while simple sneezes and casual coughs are causes for concern. The present has pushed our norms into the past without our permission.
While this pandemic has caused many of us to rethink & revise our day to day functions, I can’t help to consider what we will do, as members of mortality, when this setback subsides & we have the opportunity to re-establish our practices as we see fit. With no intention of sounding cynical, I wonder if we will we remain deeply compassionate towards one another after this moment? Or will we revert back towards self interest? Will we still innovate or will we be inclined towards individualism? What will our collective response be after all of this is over?
Will businesses continue adjust their procedures to uplift the underprivileged or go back to business (pun intended) as usual? Will our churches double down on their efforts to be creative in ministering to others (Side note: Perhaps God allowed the cultural curve to slow down so that God’s churches & the ministries housed in them could catch up)? Will restaurants be more concerned with filling bellies than bank accounts? Will the priority our grocery stores presently place on our elders be maintained or melt away? We have no choice to do these things now, but once we are out of this season of unprecedented catastrophe, will we choose to conduct ourselves with unprecedented compassion? Will we choose to be a civilized civilization or will fight against what has become in order to push things back to the way they used to be?
The Bible, controversially, illustrates calamity being used as a means of re-instituting covenant with God & closeness with one another. Floods, ultimately ended up in renewed fellowship with God. Plagues conclusively confirmed the will of God for God’s people. If “the Rona” has done nothing else, it has pushed into God’s highest desire for our lives. This season has not only disproved the myth that all of the things that we thought we needed were actually necessary, but it has also awkwardly gifted us the chance to reset and realign with God’s design for humanity and her institutions. And while I would struggle to lay the reality of coronavirus at the feet of God’s doing, I unequivocally believe that God has allowed this crisis to drive out of us what was unimportant & drive into us what actually is important. This all will pass. COVID-19 will eventually go away. And after it does, the worse thing we could do would be to go back to the way things were. To do so, would assign us to a fate worse than the virus itself.
Its been a little more than a month. And all we have is definitively is our Creator, our words and the way we treat each other. The newness of our “new normal” is slowly fading into regularity & we will either choose to continue to explore the depths of Divine decency or head back towards the shores of our previous comforts. The generations that come after us will either smile at us or spite us for how we chose to respond in this moment. Will our response be to continue to embody the truest sense of God’s call to “unconditional love” or will we be known as followers of Jesus who needed ‘things’ in order to serve people. What will they say of you and I? After this is all over, what will we choose to become?
One Comment
KEW
Sadly, I’ve been mostly looking at this crisis through the lens of cynicism. The pandemic has heightened opportunism, exploitation, and greed. They’ve always been there, but they’ve been exposed in a way I don’t think people realized was always happening. Examples include: food delivery services profiteering off of restaurants and drivers; essential workers being overworked, not receiving hazard pay and working without the health and safety equipment they need; landlords soliciting their tenants for sex because the renters can’t pay their rent; the paycheck protection program funding going to large corporations instead of the small businesses it was supposed to keep afloat; the expansions tounemployment compensation not getting to the people that need it most, etc. I could go on and on.
I think the thing that bothers me the most is that I don’t see an increase in people wanting to dismantle these corrupt systems. It’s the same people taking advantage of others and the same people fighting against them. During one of the church weekly prayer conference calls I said something I hadn’t said in a while, “God, the only hope for this world is Jesus”. I don’t think I ever felt that as strongly as I do now.
On the other hand, I don’t think I’ve , truly, realized how protected I am in His care. Every need I have had been met and exceeded to where I’ve been able to help my family and friends.
I don’t know how to summarize this moment. I do know that I am safe in his arms.