Don't Lose Heart

Humans are in a mess. And it's a mess of our own making. It may be that pandemics like the one we are experiencing now are unavoidable, but the reason they are unavoidable is that we are continually claiming new lands, bringing ourselves into contact with wild animals that have remained undisturbed, or because we are putting domesticated animals together in ways that allow them to share viruses and this allows those viruses to infect humans. It is because we take and take from the earth that we unleash these novel viruses. There's really not much that most of us can do about that.

Then there's the way that some people are treating this pandemic. Most of you reading will know by now that the United States now has by far the highest number of cases of Covid-19 in the world. (As you might know, Covid-19 stands for COrona VIrus Disease, 2019). Yet with all these cases, so many people are disregarding the safety guidelines given by doctors and are congregating, breaking social distancing guidelines, and doing all kinds of non-essential activities. This puts all of us at higher risk, even those trying to follow the guidelines, because it keeps the rate of infection going up.

And the  there's the other part of this pandemic, the economic strain this is putting on so many of us as our investments, if we have any, lose value, or as people lose employment. So many people are living on the edge of their means already, that any bump in the road, or catastrophic chasm in the road, like this pandemic, can easily overwhelm people's finances and send them into a tailspin. Add to that the number of companies that rely on people to make those payments every month, and we see why the Federal Government is stepping in and may need to step in with much bigger payments to help its people out.

All that news is pretty bleak. If you are like me, it might cause you to get pretty down sometimes. For me, it is hard to be separated from people for such a long time, and I find myself feeling drained. I think interactions with people fill me with energy, and missing people makes me feel lethargic and just down. Maybe you are like that, too. Or maybe you feel like your purpose is missing. After all, many of us find our purpose in our work. Not being able to work, or not being able to work in the way we are accustomed to working is confusing for our systems and we might feel a sense of loss of purpose.

But don't lose heart. We will come through this. For people of faith, we have examples from our scriptures of times when the people were not only down, they were thought to be lost. And yet, from each example, the people reemerged. It may not have been how they planned or hoped, but they became a new people, re-formed through their times of tragedy.

Even for those who have no faith, there are plenty of examples in our own lives of when things looked bad and we persevered. I don;t know all of your stories, but I'll wager if you look back just a few years you can find a struggle that led to where you are right now. It might have been a surprise how it worked out, but here you are. And humanity will continue to persevere.

For Christians, the ultimate story is the one of Jesus' death. In that moment, as far as the disciples knew, everything was over. Their work was done. It had failed. And yet, Jesus came out of the tomb overcoming death itself. There is great hope in that story.

None of us know how life will be in the future, when we finally come out of this time of pandemic. But history tells us that we will come out of it. And when we do, we will hopefully be better prepared to face such a challenge in the future.

So, don't lose heart. Don't judge yourself if you are down every now and then, but remember that though the times we are living in are different than anything we have ever faced, we will get through them together. The world will likely be changed. We will be changed. Some of the people we love may no longer be with us. Those are all reasons to mourn. But the light will shine and the dawn will come and we will be renewed. Trust in that hope, so that even as you begin to despair, you can look forward to a glorious new day.

Don't lose heart.

That's the view today.