Confusing times
I don’t know what is happening right now. I’ve seen so much from different people. Different perspectives, different stories, and different suggestions for the purpose of this pandemic. But I just don’t know, and for once, I don’t feel like I’m alone with that.
I am one among billions of people experiencing what’s occurring right now. Just one! Isn’t that crazy? Isn’t it crazy that usually referring to ‘billions’ of people would be a hyperbole, but in this moment, it is as accurate as it can get. Literal billions are facing the same thing we are.
Billions of us
The single mother who has to work from home and look after her kids 24/7. Supervising them, entertaining them, attending to them. Twenty-four hours a day. Seven days a week.
The man who just had his heart broken by his long term partner, now divided by laws and regulations which limit opportunities to meet and talk things out, left to sit in his thoughts and feelings.
The extroverted girl who has been stripped of all real life social activity, now confronted by her own self, to converse and socialise with her own being. The couple who have run a business for 30 years they now have to close.
The lady who can’t visit her sick grandmother. The boy who has lost his new job. Those who go to the gym, meet up for dinner, walk with a friend.
It’s all stopped.
So what’s the purpose?
So what’s the purpose? Some suggest God is stripping away all our idols. Some suggest He is forcing us to stop. To rest. To draw back on Him. And of course, that doesn’t sound too bad, does it?
But some don’t get to stop. Those working in supermarkets, pharmacies, driving delivery trucks and especially those in hospitals and medical centres don’t get to stop.
The introvert gets to sleep in, play PlayStation, and collect a paycheck. The tired get to rest. But others that are tired have to man checkouts, sanitise eftpos pin pads, risk their lives to help the lives of others.
With billions of people, perspectives, situations, stories and experiences, are there billions of purposes? Or is there one?
Reflection
This question has frustrated me and consumed me with doubt towards God at this time. But through the rough transition of this lockdown, I’ve continuously believed that He is still here. That He is amongst everything. Of course He is!
And rather than getting caught up in the frustration, unfairness and uncertainty of this pandemic I have accepted that maybe the purpose of it is simply different for me than it is for you. But that there is an underlying purpose of reflection for us all.
Reflection for all
Whether we are at home with nothing to do or we are hospital workers operating in chaos. Whether we’re given an empty and quiet house or a chaotic increase in work schedules. Whether we spend a whole day in prayer and silence, or a whole night stacking shelves in a supermarket.
That what we see in the news and what we don’t see on the streets calls us to reflect. That in this time the heartbroken man can reflect, the social extrovert can reflect, that I myself can reflect. And I pray that those on the front line can find the time to reflect too.
To reflect on our world, our ideas, our relationships, our hearts, our minds and our priorities. That whether we know God or not, in this time, we can all take this opportunity to simply reflect.