In the past few weeks we have been bombarded with news about COVID-19, the corona virus that has created fear and concern for not only our community, but indeed our country and the entire world. We have gone from instructing one another to wash our hands for at least 20 seconds (while singing “Happy Birthday”) and to be sure to cough and sneeze into our elbow rather than our hands, to now being told to stay-at-home and practice social distancing from one another. Restaurants and stores are closed, and churches are moving to online worship services in an effort to maintain connection while also recognizing that physical contact right now has the potential to harm our friends and loved ones.
All of this uncertainty about the future is not only frightening, but also emotionally and spiritually exhausting. And because we are emotionally and spiritually tired, it becomes easy to begin focusing on the negative. We might look for the problems in a situation instead of the possible solutions. It becomes easier to complain about what is wrong in the world instead of what we can do to make the world a better place. And criticizing others actions and way of life becomes easier than accepting them for who they are and what their own life experiences have led them to believe.
Life is difficult. And in the midst of fear and uncertainty, it can seem next to impossible to navigate and maintain a positive attitude. This week, I encourage you to take any negative thoughts you might have and turn them on their head-turn them around to find the good. Find a way to affirm life around you and see that God created it all, and it is indeed good.
Yesterday in our virtual worship service at Compton Heights Christian Church, a poem written by a Roman Catholic friar, Richard Hendricks was shared. I love the way it names our fears and negative experiences, but then calls us to look beyond, to the beauty of how we are called to connect with one another, even in the midst of our isolation.
Lockdown
Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.
I pray that we are always able to remember that even in the midst of what feels like chaos, new life is emerging. And I pray that we open our hearts to affirm the life around and within us.