Tag: pandemic

Christmas Reflections 2020

Thus he has given us…his precious and very great promises, so that [we] may become participants of the divine nature.

2 Peter 1:4

The good news of Christmas is that God is with us and is present with liberation and transformation. God desires a relationship with us, coming to us in Christ Jesus. We become participants of the divine nature through the one who is the Participant of the divine nature. The Word (God’s self-expression) became flesh and dwells among us. In creating, God did not fling us away into infinite silence, but became united to creation and speaks into it life and healing. The Word became flesh, became matter, so that God is intimately near: God is “above all, through all, and in all.” (Ephesians 4:6)

God is in creation. God is in our humanity and relationships. God is in all of the situations and circumstances of our lives. God is present to us and for us in the midst of a pandemic. God can be found there. God is in the darkness as well as in the light. God is in the world as it is, not in a world of make-believe. We experience this when we relinquish our lives to God, living from the source of our lives.

In the midst of the pandemic, we may have run to various coping mechanisms for relief from anxiety and stress. We may, for example, have tried binge-watching streaming videos. In this way, we managed a little escape for a while, but binge-watching lasts only so long before we must escape it as well. And then, we must face our anxieties again. The good news is that God is in all things with deliverance for us. God is in a world going through a pandemic. We meet God in the midst of our present situation. By trust in God, we can face our anxieties and find release. “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

Our coping mechanisms serve a purpose until we surrender ourselves to God, which is a daily activity of faith. Our coping mechanisms allow us to carry on with a degree of sanity. They are necessary because of our experience of alienation from God. I think of them as symbolically expressed in the Genesis story of humanity’s fall into sin where God makes for Adam and Eve a covering, something that they had not needed before their break with God. Without God, we need ways to cope in the same way that Adam and Eve needed a covering. It is only as the reality of God’s presence deepens that we are increasingly freed from having to cover over our anxieties. We can start to face them.

Coping mechanisms are both a covering and a bondage. They are habits similar to addictions. They offer no freedom. Our freedom is in facing our anxieties in Christ. This is why we experience prayer as so critical to our lives, prayer understood as the surrender of our lives to God in the midst of present circumstances.

The coronavirus pandemic has been experienced in many different ways. For many it has meant isolation from loved ones, loss of employment, and survival concerns. For some, it has meant death and grief. It may also have meant the acknowledgment of our vulnerability, a deepening of trust, and finding God in the midst of it all. The good news of Christmas is that God is with us. God is near and available with forgiveness, mercy, welcome, peace, healing, and freedom. Therefore, we can turn to God no matter what we are presently facing. With grateful hearts, we celebrate the one named Immanuel, “God with us.”

Filed under: Faith, SpiritualityTagged with: , ,

Gifts In A Time of Pandemics: Pain

I have heard recovering addicts say, “When the pain got bad enough, I reached out for help.”

Pain is a gift. We are glad we have it when we have touched a hot stove and it has us quickly remove our hand. Pain has us seek help; it gets us to a doctor. Emotional pain alerts us to the effects of actions we have taken that are destructive to our well-being. It tells us it is time to make a change. Emotional pain also alerts us to the effects of others’ actions that are hurtful to our well-being. Such pain may have us make decisions to disengage from situations and people for the sake of our health or to engage in a manner that retains our humanity, sense of self, and purpose.

We are in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic that is causing pain. We also continue to experience a pandemic with a much longer history, spanning the existence of our nation: the pandemic of racism and white supremacy. In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, African Americans, in great numbers, along with allies, are sharing their pain, not only of this one instance of racist action but the accumulated pain of layer upon layer of injustices. They have brought their pain into the streets and into white spaces. They have placed it before a nation. The sharing of their pain is a gift—especially to those of us who are white. We need to feel their pain or, if not, feel the pain of disruption, of no more business as usual. We may be pressed into making changes.

Gifts, of course, are meant to be received. But they first must be recognized as a gift. For addicts, pain is not readily recognized as a gift. It is often another reason to self-medicate, to cover up the pain—until it gets bad enough. Elsewhere in posts of this blog, I have referred to racism as an addiction. It fits the many aspects of addictive behavior. What does it take for those of us, who are white, to acknowledge our racism and to acknowledge the effects of that racism on the criminal justice system? What does it take to acknowledge the deep disparities in the way the system operates in relation to people of color over against those who receive “privileges” because of their white skin?

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the racial disparities in our nation. The protests in our streets are highlighting the systemic racism that is the foundation of these disparities. Both the coronavirus and the virus of racism bring pain. That pain will move out to every sector of our society. After all, in one way or another, we are all connected. There is no place to hide.

How great does the pain have to be for us to change? How long will we encounter the pain of others and turn away? How long will we support the disparities and injustices? What will it take before those of us who are white acknowledge that it is our racism that has built and maintained unjust policies and institutions and that it is racism that allows us to leave unaddressed the injustices? Racism and the history of white supremacy have built the unjust criminal justice system that we have today. We, who acknowledge this, have to be a part of dismantling it and rebuilding a just way of operating. And we will have to be vigilant to keep building toward justice.

Like all addictions, racism denies there is a problem or that the problem is that bad—until the denial is acknowledged to be a symptom of the addiction. The pain of our addiction and what our addiction produces calls for change. The Spirit is in that call for change. It is a call to repent.

Repentance is simply a turning from the direction we have been going so that we now walk in a way of healing and liberation and new life. It is a spiritual act because the Spirit of God is present to help us. The only true repentance, understood spiritually, is from death to life, from spiritual death (the loss of love) to the One who is Life Itself, to the Love that frees us.

Filed under: Racism, SufferingTagged with: , ,