Dear God,
I knew you would use this time of pandemic to teach us more about you and faith and living. I knew the lessons were on the way, but it has taken time for me to be open to receive them. In the first few weeks, I was in shock. I was scrambling to grab on to something as the world around me was changing rapidly. My mind was too unsettled and probably too frightened to listen for your lessons.
Now lessons are finding their way to me. I am grateful. There is comfort in what you are showing me. Here’s what I have learned. My Lessons from the Pandemic
Lesson #1 COVID has changed our sense of time. Congratulations! Here’s your schedule courtesy of COVID-19! My calendar looks different. My schedule used to be governed by the events at church. That has changed.
Anyone who believes they have been exposed to COVID needs to quarantine for two weeks. Before the pandemic, who would have ever had two weeks to devote to anything?
Now every task takes extra time. At our house, we don’t just pop into the grocery store for ketchup or toilet paper. We pick up our groceries curbside, and that takes planning and more time.
Families know this better than anyone. Caring for children is a huge issue right now. Caring for children takes time. It should. And to care for children we have had to re-arrange our time.
Lesson #2 I have more than I need. Confined to my house, I look around. How did I accumulate all this stuff? And I am noticing more than ever, that others do not have what they need. Dave and I hold hands and pray over our supper, and always in my mind, I see empty plates in the homes of others.
Lesson #3 Fresh air is a gift. A walk in the open renews my spirit. Good food is a gift. Driveway conversations are a gift. The ability to smile is a gift. Oddly, at this time, I think I smile more than I used to.
Lesson #4 Life does not stop because there is a pandemic. Babies continue to be born. Children still grow up. Couples fall in love, become engaged, and would like to celebrate it all with a big wedding. Families still argue. We still pay taxes, take the dog to the vet, and brush our teeth. People still break bones. People still die, and we still grieve. God, I would like you to call a “time out” so we can address one thing at a time, but that has not happened. We go on living and the faults in our way of living become more apparent in light of the pandemic.
Lesson #5 Everyone is different, and we respond to this pandemic in different ways.
Lesson #6 We need people. We need to look them in the eye. We need to hear their voices. I think I knew this, but now I know it more than ever. From what I am seeing on Facebook, our isolation can make us mean. Left alone, we get scared and when we are scared, we look for an enemy.
Lesson #7 We are experiencing a global pandemic, but lots and lots of people experience their personal and family pandemics all the time. A friend has been fighting cancer for 15 years. Another carries an emotional scar. Poverty is a pandemic. Racism is a pandemic. The COVID pandemic has us all feeling uncertain, but lots of people have lived with that same uncertainty every day in their personal pandemics.
Lesson #8 What we do matters to others. John Lewis died a week ago. He was just one man, and yet so many looked to him for moral guidance. Each of us, how we conduct our lives, changes the world. You, Lord, have created us to live our lives in a way that makes life better for others. We wear a hot, uncomfortable mask for others.
Lesson #9 Sometimes I am just sad and at those times I have learned to sit with the sadness, just let it be. There is a lot to grieve and my soul needs to do the work of grieving.
Lesson #10 The hardest lesson. It is clear that before the pandemic, I had arranged my life and my schedule around my desires and what made me comfortable. In doing that, I made myself the center of the universe.
Lesson #11 Lesson #10 requires a lot of letting go. Suspending myself in the unknown and the Holy is hard. But I am also discovering a sense of relief. I do not have to be the center of my universe. My universe is a small pen, confined by my imagination and my limited courage. God’s universe is endless and filled with grace. You God, the creator of elephants and butterflies and mountain goats, your universe is an adventure, even playful. To live in your universe means I need to trust that even in the uncertainty, your goodness is at work.
Lesson #12 Lesson #10 is relearned every day. But I feel the center of my universe shifting, at a pace my stubborn nature will allow. You, Lord, are making your way to the center.
And I am wondering Lord if you are using this pandemic to rearrange the world. If you are, may we surrender to you?
I think there are more lessons on the way. I am grateful. You have not abandoned us. Amen.
Blessings,
Pastor Cindy
Pastor Cindy Hickman
West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Ave
West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
515-279-0826
Like us on Facebook or visit us at wdmumc.org.
Join us for worship on-line Sunday mornings at 9:30!
This week at WDMUMC
Parking Lot Worship on Sunday at 6:45 pm! Bring your lawn chair or remain in your car. Wear a mask and social distance. We will share in music and scripture and prayer!
Chalk Church for Children in the Parking Lot has been moved to August 5 (Wednesday!) at 6 pm. Alice Burress is leading children and their parents as they decorate our parking lot. Children and families please wear masks and plan to social distance by families!
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