It’s only the first Saturday of summer, and our sizzling temps are already breaking records. At least, here in the Pacific NW! It is weirdly hot, and in this land of little A/C, it’s also perilous. I pray this is not the harbinger for the entire season!
We often judge a season by the worst moments we experience within the season. We do not limit the season to the time based on our calendar… Though it’s Summer, I feel like we are ridiculously closer to the sun than ever before!
2020, into 2021, and perhaps beyond, will be judged by the pandemic. Is that all that happened? No. Other bad things happened, and a lot of good news will be drowned out by the memories of that which put fear into our existence. This season has made it possible for many to quickly label people, cancel their existence, and drive everyone into a dark corner. For some, isolation becomes the accepted norm. For others, it’s a rage of society that has become the calling card. Mask, or don’t mask. Vaccinate, or not—physical (not social) distancing, or not. We’ve been so long without close contact, and physical touch that a future psychosis will be labeled, a protected class named, and many will be added to a new protected class system.
I was sitting this morning thinking about how weird it is, and it t’ain’t over yet!
Reopening of Life
Since I’m a pastor and have been a business owner in my past, and since I’ve worked for others since I was about 14 (52 years ago!), I’m cautiously watching how life reopens after this season of weirdness. My focus has been upon my church because that’s my calling, not my career! My life has been about people, not a building, nor a bottom line in some ledger.
So, I wonder how we will reopen life!???!
Webinars, newsletters, instructions, guides, coaches, and mentors – I’m inundated with the latest “how-to’s” to get back to normal the life we left behind over 16 months ago. I have personally witnessed people bailing on life due to fear and phobias. We will be a decade later and still hassling with the aftermath of this season. Deviant strains will prevail, fear will remain, and new vaccinations will be thrust upon us for years to come.
We will forget where the original disease came from!
On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced an official name for the disease that is causing the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic, first identified in Wuhan China. The new name of this disease is coronavirus disease 2019, abbreviated as COVID-19. In COVID-19, “CO” stands for corona, “VI” for virus, and ”D” for disease. Formerly, this disease was referred to as “2019 novel coronavirus” or “2019-nCoV.” [Source]
For me, the reopening must keep in mind that which closed everything down. Think about the loss of businesses that will never reopen or the others who are barely hanging on due to a ramped-up temporary business model.
If It Is To Be It Begins With Me (IIITBIBWM)
I’ve written about this before. Whatever happens, whether good or bad, how I choose to address it begins with me. Not you, nor anyone else. If it is to be, it must begin with me. Overcoming fear, and I know fear is a sin when it causes us to act in contradiction to God’s Word, is probably the strongest battle we will all face. Yet, fear of life and circumstances is in contradiction to God’s Word!
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
(2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV)
If it is to be it must begin with me. Overcome fear with Power, Love, and a Sound Mind!
Yet, this is not just a New Testament mindset. This concept goes back even further!
‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt,
so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!‘
(Haggai 2:5 NKJV)
Put it to Work!
It does little good to have the knowledge if you do not put it to work!
When I learned to pilot a plane, I overcame the fear of losing flight controls and crashing! How? By practicing the maneuvers that put you into proximity of a negative ending, learn how to overcome the forces that will crash a plane!
My instructor said it like this: Landings are just a controlled fall out of the sky!
So, at 3,000 feet high, we would practice landing “stalls” where a plane quits flying and starts falling from the sky! But, I learn how to make it happen when I wanted it to! I had to learn this with him in the plane and then practice it by myself before I could ever take the test to become a pilot.
I learned the difference between blinding fear and healthy respect for things that can do you in!
If I am going to learn how to not be blinded by fear, then if it is to be, it must begin with me!
Where Are We
This put me in the mind of all of us who went through this disease season and wondered about our response at a personal level. Many of us experienced fear because it seemed no one was prepared for the occurrence. Along with the years’ other events (Accidents, Disease, Murder, etc.) COVID-19, in just one year, jumped past our two top killer events – Heart Disease and Cancer. Watch the graph lines a little closer, and you will see there are ways to mitigate the virus. The spikes and valleys show the ebb and flow of the disease. Vaccines and treatments improve our odds!
Consider this, C-19 is being handled, but Heart Disease and Cancer, and all the other killers, are not handled with the same intensity. We can conquer C-19, but how do you conquer all the others problems?
How do we recover? If it is to be, it must begin with me! Learning to ropes and processes, we learn how to protect ourselves and others. When’s the last time you heard the news talk about Herd Immunity? It’s been a while! What we are hearing is that we must continue our learned lessons if we are to stay ahead of the curve.
I confess I walk into stores without my mask because I’m allowed to, and it feels great! I’m even walking away from stores that are forcing the mask to stay on! No matter what, I still sanitize, keep my hands away from my face, and watch how close I get to others. That’s one lesson that is sticking!