PART 1

So, for these first few posts they will be the most generic and random. These are some of the things that have regularly burst into my mind over the last month or so and I want to be sure to remember them and perhaps as I list them out they may be things that you are compelled to think more deeply about as well. Fair warning, I don’t claim that any of the thoughts below are well thought out, complete or exhaustive. What follows is just me putting some words to some thoughts that my brain has seemed to want to hold onto more than other thoughts, so the point of these words is remembering, not necessarily analyzing. Does that make sense? In other words, if you don’t like something or disagree with something or think I wasn’t fair or thorough enough with something that you think needs more explanation that’s fine…maybe you should think more about it and write your own post, I’ll read it, I promise. So here we go:

1. Some Things Never Change

For all that has been shut down and stopped, so much has continued on like nothing was even happening. For all the things around us that have come to a screeching halt so many other things have continued without any interruption at all and I don’t think we should miss that. Some things in life are unstoppable and always will be, here’s a few that I have seen…

A. Death

During the pandemic thousands of people have lost their lives to a virus, but several others lost their lives to something else. While many people sheltered in to protect themselves from the threat of Covid-19, a little friend of mine that lived in Haiti named Jerry lost his life to bone cancer. He was 11 years old. While people wear masks to keep from spreading a sickness they may or may not be carrying, some dear, beloved friends as well as some family members both lost their babies. I couldn’t even get this article finished before I had to add multiple acts of unspeakable injustice that occurred even in the midst of a national emergency. First, an innocent, unarmed African American was gruesomely gunned down while he was out for a jog. And then, another African American man was murdered by a police officer who kept his knee on the man’s neck for 9 minutes even while he shouted, “I can’t breathe.” Following these unthinkable acts, with the language of the unheard, rioters took the streets all over the globe, leaving chaos and destruction in its seemingly unending wake. We have seen tornadoes and heard of earthquakes and hurricanes even while we were taking precautions against an enemy that may or may not be as deadly as they first told us it was. Death keeps coming. And it comes in so many different forms. I don’t think we should miss this; death is absolutely unstoppable. And it always will be. If it took a global pandemic to remind us of that, it is only because we were ignoring what was so obviously around us the whole time. 

B. Birth

Babies are being born in the midst of this pandemic. Have you seen this? Life bursts forth even as we quiver with fear over something new that might bring death. In the next 8 weeks I will have 3 different sets of friends that will give birth to brand new babies. These brand-new humans are being brought into a world of global viruses, cutthroat politics, recessions, partially closed economies etc. And I don’t want to sound insensitive at all but really, what else is new? Since Adam ate that fruit every baby that has been brought into this world was brought into a broken one. We have always known that. And birth in a pandemic provides a new shade of brokenness. My heart breaks for the wives that will give birth alone in that room with doctors who are kind but strangers nonetheless. And I sit in tears right now for the husbands that will feel powerless and weak as they wait while their wives walk through that pain and experience by themselves. It is not supposed to be this way. It’s not. But nothing, absolutely nothing at all is the way that it should be and it never will be until the Creator puts it all back together again. And I think pandemic loses its power a little bit when it actually helps us to look forward to that day more and more.

C. Love

Now I know this will sound a bit one-sided because I know that there is for sure another, darker side of this observation. There always is right? But on the positive side I know that in these times there are husbands who are being reminded of just how awesome their wives are and why they fell in love with them in the first place. I know there are parents who are finding out more and more wonderful, beautiful things about their kids and their love for them is getting deeper and deeper by the day. And people have found ways to get married in the pandemic and I personally have some amazing friends that despite social-distancing protocols are getting engaged very soon (or are already engaged depending on when I finish this…) Our church has seen two beautiful couples find ways to get married and proclaim vows for forever, even without the wedding they necessarily imagined. I know there are pastors who are falling in love with their churches and their people more than they ever have before. And most importantly and beautifully, I know there are people meeting Jesus for the very first time and in this they are feeling deeply and unbreakably loved by God. I don’t think we should miss this, in a time when it seems like the coronavirus is stopping everything it could not and will never stop love.

D. The Church

Some outsider might read this and think to themselves, “No dude, the virus literally did stop church. It has been like 2 months since you have been together with your church how can you say that?” Here’s how…during this pandemic the church has never stopped moving. I have watched as churches have had to be creative in how they gathered their people for worship as well as how they stayed connected with those people throughout the week. I have seen pastors and elders stretched far outside of their comfort zones to ensure that their people know that they are loved and cared for in these times. I have been brought to tears multiple times in seeing church members step up to sacrificially serve and give and refuse to give up the mission of the church even in the midst of a declared global crisis. And I have seen God be glorified in all of it! (Which is, remember, the primary purpose of the church anyway!) He has blessed the efforts of His people in surprising and incredible ways! In my church alone I have baptized 5 new Christians, prayed over and received 4 brand new people into covenant membership, and seen hundreds of people checked on and loved through emails, texts, and even snail mail. I have seen groceries bought and delivered, meals prepared and given away, flowers, goodies, and presents left on doorsteps, and beautiful prayers shared through social media and through window screens. I have personally been loved and encouraged during this time by the people from my church that I am missing dearly and even by people that I have yet to meet face to face. I really think we need to fight to remember this, the coronavirus shut down and stopped a lot of things, but it couldn’t stop the church.