Level-Headed
Faith
“After
all, it is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal
with the irritating details of outer life.”
Evelyn
Underhill
Five
months into a pandemic shut-down, when the uniqueness of enforced solitude and
the delights of cozy family time have worn thin, and the only desire of one and
all is to get away from all this isolation or closeness, the Covid-19 numbers
continue to rise. Even so, we are making plans for reopening schools, getting
back to normal, going to summer camp, the beach, the lake party. Alabama is
sinking under the weight of its own blinders. We have our highest number of
sick this week, and yet, people are walking around without masks, and social
distancing is a joke. Denial is truly an amazing defense mechanism. Folks
around here are still saying, “Oh, it’s just a little flu,” when this virus is
killing thousands every day.
All I
can figure is that we simply have an extremely limited ability to deny
ourselves almost anything. We fill our churches with song and praise but deny
our fellow humans the protection of having a mask over our faces. We honestly
believe that somehow it is an infringement on our “constitutional rights” to
wear a mask in public. Where, pray tell, does that appear in the Constitution? And
until someone close to us spends six weeks in the hospital, away from anyone
who loves them, or, god-forbid, dies from Covid-19, most of us will do our best
to pretend we are exempt.
There has
never been a better time to pay attention to our inner life. How are we talking
to ourselves about this pandemic? Are we taking the victim’s role? “Why me?
What’s going to happen to me?” Or are we simply trying to be here now, to be
present with the discomforts and opportunities? Are we whining over the outrage
of restrictions, or trying to do the best we can, and to help others as we are
able? Are we taking it one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time? A good
relationship to a deep, nourishing inner life makes all the difference in hard
times. This is when faith and prayer get road-tested for durability and
reliability.
In most
countries, the numbers are way down, and folks are gradually going back to work.
That is because, they heeded the advice of the doctors who said, stay at home
and wear a mask when you do go out. They tolerated the difficult isolation of a
shut-down long enough to slow the spread. They were able to deny themselves
their “rights” to benefit the greater good. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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