What if ?
He will bring fathers and children together again; otherwise I would have to come and destroy your country." Malachi 4:6 Christian Standard Bible
What if Covid had a purpose beyond our limited human understanding?
Most Americans have repeatedly heard the pleas to help provide clean water in the Sudan, or help people who have been displaced from war, or adopt an animal that has been abused, or pray for children who are gravely ill. I, like I’m sure all of you, feel my heart pricked. I want to help every worthy cause, but I know that I don’t have the resources to do so.
As if our Heavenly Father was reaching through the misty veil of forgetfulness Covid strikes the entire world. It’s spread because our community is global rather than just a few miles.
Back in the 60’s the OBX was very hospitable and through my various research I have come to believe that it always has been. It was considered very rude to not have something nourishing to offer anyone who may come visiting. Many a day I had a cup of pinto beans that Estelle Meekins had cooked on her pot belly stove. Aunt Isabel’s garden was the stuff of legends. Eating strawberries right off the ground and tomato sandwiches within minutes of picking them. Mrs. Brantley always had fresh lemonade and homemade cookies for us kids. The Spakes always welcomed any of us kids as though we were their own.
When one person hurt we all hurt. When one person was sick we all helped out. When a classmate was struggling we all pitched in to try to help them learn.
Our modern age has cultivated less caring. Less Altruism. Less patience. Less smiling. Less understanding. Less love. Less courage. Less will-power. Less acceptance. Less trust. Less mindful living. Less church attendance. Less faith. Less inter-dependence. Less harmony. Less kindness. Less helpfulness. Less peace. Less unity. Less cultivation of our minds. Less faith. Less honesty. Less peace. Less harmony. Less of ‘we’.
With Covid we have had to confront the reality that there are different levels of living and expressions of a happy life yet we are all interconnected. Indeed when a butterfly flutters on the other side of the world there are consequences thousands of miles away.
The things that change the world are tiny seemingly trivial actions. Eve ate the forbidden fruit. It didn’t seem like such a big thing. When David Blair was reassigned before the maiden voyage of the Titanic he took the key to the Crow’s Nest Locker which is where the most powerful binoculars which ultimately disallowed the crew from seeing the iceberg in time to avoid a collision. Nagasaki was hit with the world’s first nuclear bomb, but it had been intended for Kokura. The New York blackout in 1977 gave rise to a new music genre called Hip Hop.
So how are we to know just what is important? What events will change our world? How will the loss of a person change the future? How can we feel safe anywhere or for that matter anytime?
I’m reminded of one of the science fiction shows, or maybe it was a movie, but time travelers went back in time where the travel company had installed a type of hovering walkway. The time traveling tourists were admonished to not step off the path because anything could change the future. One of the tourists anciently stepped off and killed a butterfly. That butterfly was the lineage of a butterfly that a young man would chase in the countryside. Since it was never born the young Hitler instead focused on inequalities.
I was raised with the saying “do what I say, not what I do”. It took the longest time for me to understand that. Once I had an understanding I realized that I should, as much as possible, act according to my words. When I was a pre-med student we were asked to come up with a hypothesis that could be proven or disproven from observation then to follow through and see if the results were as we expected. My idea was to see who actually washed their hands after visiting the toilet. If memory serves correctly it was more than 75% of people who did not wash their hands.
So is it any wonder that we have a pandemic? We, for the most part, pursue that which is in our individual best interests with perhaps a sharing with close family members. We see someone’s failings and jump in to take an opportunity. We jump on the bandwagon of making fun of others because they look different than we do, or they have a different way of believing in God, or even how many step-parents they have. We routinely throw away eatable food with little regard to those who go hungry. We lack compassion for those who are sick most especially by something that they themselves contributed to. We think as we observe the difficulties others have that we could and would handle things better. We squash hope whenever it attempts to dawn.
We assume we have a complete understanding of all situations in our lives. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Until we change the cause of our global dysfunction we will not see positive personal growth on a large scale. The strongest usually wins. The toughest usually dominates. The smartest usually supervises. This is wrong-thinking. Living in community is a part of our biological makeup. We suffer because we focus on the differences instead of the commonalities.
In order to impact the world to be and do better we must practice the qualities that you want reflected back at you.
Take a metal spoon and look at it as though you were going to eat with it. Have it right in front of your eyes. What do you see? Now turn it around so that the back of the spoon is facing you. What do you see? When we are focused on ourselves the world is upside down, but when we focus on others things are upright if even it struggles to do so and the progress is slow.
We will never be able to deal with the present until we have come to terms with the past and made dramatic changes so that we can leave the world better for our children.
Namaste
