Counting the Cost of a Quarantine

Leslie Matthews Hollenbeck

On a lively discussion of Fox Business Network Mark Cuban advised recent graduates interviewing for a job, be prepared for the question, what did you learn from the COVID-19 quarantine?

From there he went on to discuss how those who are learning, dreaming, planning, designing – perhaps entrepreneur-ing a new business will reap a reward.

Never waste a crisis: the advice politicians sometimes expound, takes on a new dimension in a quarantine!

What am I learning during this Twilight Zone season? (Besides painting) Sidebar: Here’s today’s effort:

Today’s Painting: Hunter or Fisherman?

This has been a seven-weeks introduction to a world I never imagined: a pandemic, financial collapse, and government control. I am guessing we might be in for some rough sailing.

Attitude is a little thing that still makes a big difference.

Awhile back, I same a proverb: The issue is not do I see a glass as half-empty, or do I see it as half-full. The question is do I believe I can refill it?

Well, maybe not me . . . but that our children and grandchildren, and yours, dear reader, will be pioneers on an expansion as exciting as the one that opened up the west;  as well as, as costly, and full of rewards and risks.

Some have said, “I hope we don’t get back to the normal, because normal wasn’t working.”

But unless we admit we need changing, and are willing to change in these times of testing, the new normal  will soon feel like the same old same old. (Matthew 8:2)

What am I learning?

What would I tell my grandchildren I learned, should I survive? That everyday so far, I have heard God asking, Can you hear me now?

He has removed so many supports, yet, without letting me fall flat. However, as this experience wears on, the chance for troubles increases.

It’s one thing to trust God joyfully in my happy American bubble; it’s another when I discover one slow leak after another! There are not enough patches or time to keep my bubble floating in this experience.

My circumstances seem very familiar, but they are quite different from the beginning of March; what I am learning is the Lord does not change.  That might not be what a prospective employer would want to hear . . . but there you have it.

For as isolated as we have become, in these seven weeks, I am learning. We have many opportunities daily for learning and growth . . . and prayer.  For example:

1. Today I heard a simple reminder that God answers prayers. God gives me what I would have asked for if I knew what He knows. (Trusting God in Difficult Times)
2. Alistar Begg reminded me of an old Anglican prayer, a handy reference in this quarantine: What we know not, teach us.
   What we have not,  give us.
   What we are not, make us for thy Son’s sake

What have you been learning? What lessons would you like to pass along, dear reader — if not to a potential employer, then what, and to whom?