Congratulating us on surviving September, the Facebook meme welcomes us to the 10th level of Jumanji. It evokes a laugh: the times feel like we have been trapped into a dangerous place, a bit like a crazy board game. Even though all around me looks familiar, little feels normal.
It feels like we are each in a box, but not one of our making.
Whew . . . While I can’t change the pandemic’s parameters, I can adapt – we both can. Every day is another bite at the apple.
These past months in quarantine have changed me. I’m not a Mother Theresa, but I ask more often that God show me a path to pray and give.
If there is time to:
Watch the news, then there is time to sort through a closet or a bookshelf and pass along what I no longer need. (Remember, though: Dear World: Let’s Stop Giving Our Crap to the World)
If there is time to:
Bloviate over things I have no control, then I have time to pick up a psalm and read it – like Psalm 34 or Psalm 50. I can camp there until the comfort and chastening penetrate.
Do I have the lung capacity to complain about life’s reproofs? Save it for a kind word that blesses and builds up.
Or, for prayer.
If I have time to worry about the outcome of the election, maybe I have too much time on my hands. Whoever secures our vote on November 3 will not free us from our box, or from ourselves. (Isaiah 2:22) Anyway, come November 6, the 2024 Presidential bid will begin.
Whether your candidate or mine becomes President, you and I will still be . . . restricted. And we will be dependent on each other and strangers, living through events beyond our control.
So, here’s a reminder from a contemporary and friend, who’s weathering this pandemic alone. She commented, “I have found that in the trials of life, God really wants to change me rather than my circumstances.”
Surviving thus far, you and I can be glad we have brass to polish in these golden October days.
Whatever the next level of Jumanji may come: Let me, then, today, practice depending on God . . . for my daily bread and deliverance from evil.
You can overcome anything if you don’t bellyache. ~Bernard Baruch
Surviving AND Thriving?
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