Pandemic, Social Distancing, Shelter-in-Place, Recession, Quarantine…none of those words were on anyone’s radar in late 2019. Suddenly these words hang like a weight and a burden on our every anxious thought. Almost instantly, we’re stuck in our homes hoarding things we don’t really need because we don’t really know what’s going to happen next. We’re two weeks into the sudden new-normal and close friends are losing jobs and incomes, baby showers, weddings, and graduations are being postponed and suddenly the future looks…blank. Our current reality feels like we’re slowing at a curve on a road we’ve never driven and have no idea what we’ll find on the other side. Faced with uncertainty, doubt, and loss, a natural response is to shelter-in-place inside ourselves. To stop, wait, and withdraw.
“And he did not know where to begin.”
What’s around the curve? I don’t know. I’m not an expert on epidemiology or macroeconomics. But I know we are all in this together, and I firmly believe what waits on the other side of the curve is being shaped by how each of us in courage and compassion live out the best of ourselves right now. Not withdrawing into our fear and anxiousness, but actively sharing our talents and gifts with each other in confidence and hope.
Let us not allow the uncertainty and mystery of this present circumstance distract us from the opportunity we have to collectively ask: “How can we be the best of ourselves, and be better to each other because of this?”
There is much about this season that we can’t control. But we do control our attitudes, our acts of service towards others, our individual industriousness, our resolve. Don’t withdraw. Be strong and courageous. Help those in need, be kind to everyone, do the work you have been given to do fully, vigorously, and with joy.
Because we are in this together. And we need you.
“Just begin.”