Oh COVID-19 the gift that keeps giving. Really it’s more like the white elephant gift that no one wants that just keeps getting passed around waiting for someone to finally throw it away…or burn it.
Well, I know for some of you life has not changed much from earlier this year as you are still under heavy restrictions. Sorry about that.
I live in Iowa and we have experienced a little more “freedom” during this time than some other states but our Governor just issued a new mask mandate in response to the rise in COVID-19 cases across the state. Our high school is going to all online learning for the next few weeks and masks are required for social gatherings over 25 people.
Anyways, I found this blog post I published at the beginning of all of this and just thought it might be helpful to some of you right now so here you go.
How do we respond to the madness of 2020? I have four quotes that I would like to share with you that I believe apply to the current situation.
QUOTE #1
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.“
Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
Who would have thought that something deep would come from a kid’s movie?I heard this quote the other night while my kids watched The Lorax movie? Currently, I am struggling to care about this whole Coronavirus situation because for me it feels like we as a nation are overreacting to this whole situation. That’s not the point though. It may be the right decision or it might be the wrong decision. Either way a decision has been made and I need to figure out how to live with it. The main point is that there are people who are afraid, anxious and overwhelmed so I need to figure out how to care for those people. We need to make sure we are not feeding into the negativity of this situation and instead focus on the positives. Instead of trying to hoard toilet paper and hand-sanitizer, maybe we should begin to think of how we can serve our neighbors during this time. This quote reminded me that the change starts with me.
QUOTE #2
“God is everywhere – I don’t have to be.”
Unknown
I am not entirely sure who said this first but a co-worker of mine said it the other day so I will attribute it to her. My co-worker takes this quote to mean that since God is everywhere that means He is in control so there is no need to worry about it. Yes, we will still worry about stuff since we are human but this gives us reassurance that wherever we go or whatever we face, God will be right there with us. It also means that we can let go of our illusion of control because God’s got it covered.
QUOTE #3
– Carey Nieuwhof
“Social media is proving almost singularly unhelpful in providing reliable information on the pandemic, and the mainstream media (which I am generally not a critic of…I shudder to think about world without it) has been impacted by the need for clicks in the attention economy. It’s ironic that in an age of unprecedented access to information, during a crisis, thanks to social media, most of what you get is misinformation, hysteria and disinformation.”*
I regularly listen to Carey Nieuwhof’s podcast and read his blogs so I value his thoughts and opinions. I think he hits the nail on the head with the previous quote and here’s all I have to comment on it: Stay off the internet! Take a break from social media during this time.
Last quote.
We have been going to Florida during spring break for several years now. We first came with some friends of ours and they took us to a church nearby and we have attended every year we visit. When we visited in March 2020, the pastor was addressing the current situation regarding the Coronavirus and he said this:
“These are unprecedented times but we serve an unprecedented God.
Pastor Steve Vaggalis
The definition of unprecedented is, “without previous instance; never before known or experienced; unexampled or unparalleled”**
We have never really faced a situation like the one we are currently in so that makes it unprecedented but we serve a God who is “unparalleled!” Our God is a God who does things “without previous instance; never before known or experienced.” Our God is a God who creates order out of chaos.
The Coronavirus is very much upsetting the apple cart. Our normal rhythms and routines are being thrown out the window. We are going to have to make some changes but what if instead of just trying to adapt we actually thrive. What if we took some new ground during this time?
As someone who works at a church, I believe we have the opportunity to do some cool things in regards to ministry. I am excited because we as a culture spend so much time online and now the church is being forced to engage with the online. We have the opportunity to do some unprecedented things during this time, if we align ourselves with an unprecedented God.
But it’s not just all on the church staff because we all are called to love our neighbors. During this time how will you love your neighbor when you are supposed to keep your distance from them?
So we have a choice to either feed into the fear and panic or make things better by “caring a whole awful lot.” This is the time for the world to see what the church is really all about. We have an opportunity to show the world the greatness of our God by the way we handle this crisis so what are you going to do?
“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” -1 John 3:18
*https://careynieuwhof.com/crisis-leadership-christian-leadership-and-the-corona-virus-epidemic/ **https://www.dictionary.com/browse/unprecedented