Growth, Trust, and Care
At the risk of making one of the most preposterous understatements of all time, I’m going to begin by saying that COVID-19 has had a major impact on almost all areas of our lives and our society. It has brought to light many things that we don’t normally think about. For example, it has reminded us that heroes are not necessarily famous people like athletes, movie stars, politicians, etc. Many true heroes are in the medical community ranging from physicians to janitors. Others work in the various service industries. This has been a good observation.
Another good reminder is we don’t control as much as we thought we did. We see who we are in the grand scheme of things.
However, COVID-19 has also exposed some troubling things such as shortages of necessary medical supplies and inadequacy of delivery systems. In the long run this will also be a good lesson because you can’t fix a problem until you discover there is a problem.
Years ago, I heard a saying that “Crisis makes the man.” In other words, crisis situations help us grow. One can’t disagree with that, but there is another aspect: “Crisis also shows what the person already is.” With that in mind, what have the virus and quarantine exposed in us that we weren’t aware of? Here are two questions we might ask ourselves in that regard:
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This Is A Marathon
We are now in week 4 of the Quarantine of 2020 and it looks like it’s going to be an emotional, physical, and spiritual marathon. Marathons are long and grueling races. This one is particularly difficult because there is so much uncertainty. We don’t even know where the finish line is. Some of us (especially if we don’t have kids in school) can even become a bit uncertain about what day it is. Margie received a text from a friend that pointed out that traditional names for days of the week have been exchanged for “this day, that day, the other day, someday, yesterday, today, and next day”. Obviously a bit of an overstatement, but there is some truth in it.
Margie and I participated in a marathon many years ago (it wasn’t pretty but we made it). One of the things I learned during that whole process was that you have to monitor how are doing all during the race. Are you going the right pace, how is your body holding up, etc.? With that in mind, it seemed a good time to check in with ourselves. How am I doing in this COVID-19 marathon?
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Our Thought Life
Another tough week. The situation appears to be becoming more complex and not a little frightening. It would only seem logical we are all beginning to experience increasing levels of anxiety. There are a variety of ways people deal with anxiety-some are healthy and some are very unhealthy. Here are some thoughts about what I believe is ultimately the best way to deal with anxiety. However, before doing that, I want to encourage you to check with your physician if it seems like things are “getting out of hand” (i.e. sleep disturbance, trouble eating, general agitation, heart rate changes, etc.)
One of the consistent admonitions in the Bible concerns our thought life. (See Roman 12:1-2, Philippians 4:8-10, Colossians 1:1-2) Although we might not realize it, most—and probably all—anxiety begins with our thoughts. Basically, we are responding to our thoughts about a situation rather than the situation itself. We might not be aware of it because “brain time” is so much faster than “clock time”. In other words, our brains can process and respond to more information in a second than big time computers can. We are truly wonderfully made.
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Different People—Different Reactions
As mentioned last week, we are living in difficult and confusing times. For many of us, "normal" life is stressful enough. However now, in addition to the normal stressors we face, we now have to deal with major uncertainty and ambiguity. We can try to protect ourselves and our families with social distancing, hand washing, coughing into our elbows, etc. Those are good things and we definitely need to do them, but there are no guarantees. A personal belief is that extended uncertainty of this magnitude is very stressful (in adults and young people alike).
Stress is an interaction an individual and an event or situation. That is why some people aren’t as upset about a situation as others. We’re just different. We have different backgrounds, different genetic make-ups, different training, and other differences too numerous to name.
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Thoughts for a Difficult Season
One of the great understatements of the day is that we are living in a very troublesome time. There are dilemmas everywhere—medical dilemmas, financial dilemmas, social struggles, political polarization, etc. For many of us, it is a season of significant emotional stress and worry. Also, some of us may be struggling with anxiety related issues. I describe anxiety as “worry on steroids”. It’s tough. With that in mind, here are some thoughts about dealing with anxiety. This is not an exhaustive list (we will be communicating more about this as we go through this season). Hopefully, it can serve as a starter kit for those of us who are struggling.
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