Weary?

If you're anything like me, it's hard to believe we're at the end of October and still very much in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Life is not back to normal.  Depending on where you live, meetings sizes are restricted (if allowed at all), people wear masks in public, travel is limited or non-existent, schools are meeting virtually...I could go on.  Progress has been made on a vaccine, but many people have already said they won't get it for various reasons and so the question is when will these restrictions lift and life go back to normal?  Or will it ever?

I'm weary of the restrictions and a continual sense of chaos (Are numbers up or down? Can we do "X" activity right now or not?) like everyone else.  But as I take stock of my soul, I realize that the weariness is driven at least equally by the controversies, polarization, and growing judgmentalism all around me.  Between COVID-19 and the election, it seems it is hard to find common ground even among mature believers.  Social media exacerbates all of it, I am sure, but the conversations happen in real life too.

The number of new situations we are all navigating right now is substantially higher than normal, or at least it feels that way.  Each week I interact and work with people all along the spectrum of concern about the virus.  Different family members (back in the States) fall at different places on the spectrum.  Several times I've been in situations that I need to attend and event for my job where there will likely be few precautions taken and I feel uncomfortable.  Many times I've been asked why I am afraid of a virus and therefore following the government's set precautions.  The short answer is that I take precautions to help protect others (by wearing a mask, social distancing, etc.) and hope that others will do the same to help protect me, which deflects the question a bit.

But I do have fear as well and wish that it wasn't taboo to say that.  I'd like to think it's a healthy fear with all the unknowns surrounding this virus.  I live alone in a foreign country with a weak health care system.  Who would take care of me if I got a worse case?  (There's another single gal in my city and we would be there for each other if needed, but I would feel badly if she got sick because of me.)  There are no options for private care should I get very sick with COVID-19 and need medical attention.  The thought of needing to rely on the public health care system here is concerning.  So, yes, I take precautions and I wish everyone else did too!

However, life doesn't stop and plenty of people here do not follow the government's set precautions.  So in the situations where I'm more exposed, I ask God for protection, take the precautions I can, and then trust the Lord with whatever happens.  It is stretching and uncomfortable.  But we do have to learn to live with this virus until we have vaccines and understand more about it.  Most of us can't live as hermits until then, plus there is an ever-increasing percentage of people around the world slipping deeper into poverty because of shutdowns and restrictions.

Is there an easy answer to any of this?  Not really.  We need to learn how to love, respect, and care for others who have a different view of the current events without an attitude of judgmental superiority.  We need to learn how to be critical thinkers and evaluate what we are absorbing from the news or social media.  We need to learn how to see a middle ground in a world that seems to want to live in polarized extremes.

I find myself thinking and meditating on the Kingdom of God more these days.  For believers, we are first and foremost citizens of the Kingdom prior to being citizens of an earthly country.  Jesus taught repeatedly about the Kingdom of God.  As citizens of that Kingdom, we live with a different set of values and guiding principles (and these will align with different political parties on different issues or with none of them at all).  We need to dive into learning how to live out that citizenship and encourage other believers to do the same because none of us are just going to fall into living out principles of the Kingdom of God by accident.

To bring this back around to cultures, we need to be sure that we are viewing our culture wherever we live through the lens of the Bible, not the other way around.  It's hard to analyze one's own culture and worldview if you've not been exposed to other cultures and worldviews.  We need to live in a way that is counter-cultural, but interacts in love with the dominant culture, not rejecting it and creating an isolated subculture.  Then we need to teach those following us how to do the same.  Easier said than done, but working together, grounded in Scripture and led by the Spirit, I am praying we can do it!