Tag: Covid-19

Antidote to Hopelessness

On May 1, 2020

I was raised in the church all of my life, and although I attended a Christian University, and took two semesters of bible classes, I have never read the bible in its entirety. I began reading through the bible chronologically a few years ago. I am not on any official plan, and I do not read it every day, but I am trying to read through all of it at my own pace. I have found that reading it chronologically has made it easier for me to understand the stories within the context of history, and it has helped all of the stories that I have learned about over the years make more sense.

Recently, I found myself in Jeremiah 29. One of the bible verses that I have heard much of my life is from Jeremiah 29:11. It reads “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

As I stated before, this verse is not new to me, but this morning I read it within the context of the entire paragraph and this taught me something I have never known before. God’s people were living in exile when He made this promise to them. They were living in Babylon, which is known to have been a place where pagan gods were worshiped, and sexual immorality was the norm. It was the center of idolatry, and God’s own people were exiled there as a result of their choices to turn against God’s laws. Scripture tells us in Jeremiah 29:10 that God planned for the Israelites to stay in Babylon for 70 years. Basically, an entire generation would live their lives in a foreign land, living with different values than those around them. God’s plan all along was to give them a future and a hope and to prosper them, but it surely must have been hard to believe as they were living out their time as exiles in a foreign land. As the world navigates through a pandemic, I think we all have woken up to living life in a world that looks very different than it did a few months ago. All of the new social practices and health fears can have us all feeling like we are exiles living in a foreign land. The daily news briefings and changing information can leave us frightened and feeling insecure about our present and our future.

I always envisioned Jeremiah 29:11 as a “rainbows and unicorns”, sugary sweet, upbeat kind of bible verse. It’s the kind of verse you find on hand-lettered wall art, or throw pillows. Turns out, that is not how it was delivered to God’s people “back in the day”. Instead, it was delivered during a time of transition and difficulty, as a reminder that, although things looked desperate at the time, better times were ahead, eventually. In our current situation of life in a global pandemic, where EVERYTHING we know has been turned upside down, and things look desperate and difficult, as a Christian I trust that God’s promises never change. Yes, we must endure our present circumstances, but not without the knowledge that God plans to prosper us and give us a future and a hope, eventually. I suppose the only thing better than living with such hope would be to pass it on to others around us who cannot see the promise of hope in their present circumstances.

To put this into context with our current events, we know there are carriers of COVID-19 who are asymptomatic; they have been exposed but it’s undetectable to others that they carry the virus. It makes me wonder, as followers of Jesus we know we are exposed to His message of hope and light, but is it detectable to others? Are we carriers of hope walking around without the symptoms? Have we allowed the fear of the changing world around us to diminish the hope we receive from an unchanging God?

I have personally struggled with fear and negativity at times during this pandemic, especially in the early days. I was fearful for my own family and sad for so many who were experiencing loss of life and livelihood. I knew I had to find a way to change my focus away from fear, because once you have taken all the proper precautions to protect yourself from whatever it is you deem fearful, fear itself does nothing to help anyone. I noticed that when I became intentional to begin my day with prayer and spend a few minutes reading scripture, it helped me keep my eye on God’s promises. It’s a light in the darkness; some might say scripture serves as an antidote to hopelessness.

There are many around us who are struggling to come up for air in a vortex of fear and anxiety. I believe we have a calling to share our hope with others around us. You can safely bet there are people in your circle who are struggling right now. Some are Christian believers, and some are not; some read God’s words and some never will, but in either case, they are feeling overwhelmed by their circumstances and may need an extra prayer, or a kind text or handwritten note reassuring them that they are not alone. We all know how a simple act of kindness to a friend or a stranger can brighten up someone’s day. It too can serve as an antidote to hopelessness. For many, the world feels like an extra dark place right now, and the only solution for darkness is a little more Light. As the days unfold and we face new uncertainties and new life patterns, I hope we will all cast our light wherever we are able. I want to be a carrier of hope and I want to have ALL the symptoms.

In Sickness and In Health

By Kathy Wetsell

On March 13, 2020

In My Two Cents

Most suburban Americans have become quite accustomed to the ease of daily life. When we get hungry, we go to our well-stocked pantries and refrigerators, or we order some take-out and have a food delivery service bring it directly to our door. When we get bored, we turn to our streaming service of choice for on demand access to entertainment of any variety. When we get lonely, we can text our friends or we go to social media for human interactions of all types. We are used to instant gratification of almost all of our needs.

This type of lifestyle makes it very difficult for us, as a culture, to emotionally adapt to something that we have very little control of, such as the Covid-19 virus which, according to all media reports, is crippling our entire world. As a free society, we are not pleased when we hear we must stay inside and stop doing all the things we are used to doing. It naturally causes anxiety, which we all react to in multiple ways. Some of us act like nothing is wrong and choose not to acknowledge the gravity of the situation (this would be me), while others seek to control the only things we are capable of controlling, like the quantity of toilet paper and Clorox wipes we have in our stockpile. Whichever camp you land in, try to remember that we are all handling the shock of this new landscape in the only ways we are prepared to do so.

My college-aged daughter called me yesterday with a lilt of anxious laughter in her voice as she told me that her college is cancelling all “in-person” instruction effective immediately. She told me of how her friends who are due to graduate in May, are reeling over the fact that they are currently sitting in their last college classes. While this may have been a fact worth celebrating in May, which is the natural progression of a school term, it can come as a big disappointment when it happens in mid-March without much warning. My daughter is feeling sadness because this situation will most likely cause social isolation, which is difficult for her personality to deal with. She enjoys the act of attending classes, and the social events she participates in weekly. All of this is coming to an abrupt halt, and it is understandable that it will be unsettling and it is OK to mourn the loss of normalcy.

Along the same lines, my high school-aged daughter is awaiting her classes to become “online only”, and fears this will inhibit her education for the last quarter of her Junior year, and fears that she won’t be able to attend prom. For a jaded adult like myself, it is easy to minimize the feelings she has over a trivial thing like prom, but in my heart I know it is valid for her to feel what she feels about it. She bought the dress, and she wants to take photographs with her friends and dance with her boyfriend, and make the memories she has anticipated for the last 2 years. Again, it is OK to mourn this loss.

On the other hand, perhaps it is important for all of us to learn that some of the things we worry about are trivial in the spectrum of basic life and health. Although it saddens me for my daughters to have to experience these disappointments, I also hope it will broaden their perspectives about what is happening around them. It’s not always about us, nor was it ever meant to be.

I am reminded about cohort effects, which I studied in undergraduate psychology classes many years ago. The influence that a person’s date and place of birth has on social research is known as the cohort effect, which refers to the similarities in experiences and social influences across a particular age group. In this case, I believe we are dealing with a global (rather than generational) cohort effect. Everyone who will be able to remember living through this time period with such unusual restrictions on our freedoms, and concerns about our health, will remember this time, and it will affect how we view the world and potentially change our habits for the rest of our lifetimes.

As we begin “social distancing”, we will not be attending all of the things we Americans have become accustomed to filling our time with. We won’t be at the ball games, and the concerts, and the dance recitals. Children may not have the athletic practices and music lessons that keep parents shuffling around like a taxi service on a daily basis. We may find that we have time to sit at the dinner table together, and have time to play outdoors in the back yard. Perhaps we will enjoy the company of our neighbors again (maintaining the proper personal space distances of course). Some of this is reminiscent of growing up in the 1970’s, when we did not have nearly as many activities to make our parents lose their sanity, and we had to find ways to entertain ourselves.

There are many people who are going to be negatively impacted by the Covid-19 virus, and I do not want to understate this. Besides the obvious health and mortality issues, we are dealing with economic impacts and emotional tolls which cannot easily be measured. It is tempting to self-quarantine and forget about those in our community with needs. I am having to remind myself that this event will cause many needs to arise with neighbors in my community, and while things may be “peachy” at my home with plenty of food, toilet paper, Clorox and Netflix, there are others who are accustomed to being fed by the public school system, and without school being in session, may not have enough to eat. Some people will be ill, and will need groceries and food to be delivered. I believe this is the time for ALL of us to look outside ourselves, and the 4 walls we may be confining ourselves to, and look for ways to help others. Check on your neighbors, look for community donation pleas, give to charities like The Salvation Army, who give to the less fortunate every day of the year.

I’ve heard some people say that we have become too soft as a society, and that we need something to “reset” us, and help us appreciate the freedom and luxuries many of us are blessed with. September 11 accomplished that for a short time. Sadly, this just may be the “reset” we require, and I hope we are all ready and willing to come together as a country and help each other move forward, “in sickness and in health”.