Servant’s Heart from the desk of a deacon
What can we learn from COVID?
What has been painful?
What has caused joy? Is there joy in COVID??
If we pause to reflex on our times we can think only of the negatives. The people we have lost, the jobs lost; the toll it has taken on our country and the world. Many people are stuck in this place.
Or there are those that believe that COVID does not exist, that it is some conspiracy by a “government” that wants to control us. Many people are stuck in this place as well.
What we need to ask is where do we find God in all of this? Where is our joy, our life sustaining and affirming messages in all this?
For myself it is in many things. It is in the way society has (for the most part) come together. The question: “am I the keeper of others?” has been answered with a resounding YES! The way we have looked after neighbours in a big way; the way we have seen evidence of the earth healing; the closing of the hole in the ozone layer; the returning of birds to areas that they have not been seen in in years.
As a deacon my call is to spread the good news even in the dark times. To try and help people see that there is something good in all that has happened. That this can help people become closer as we realize that what is important is not the car we have, the vacation we take, what clothes we have or where we can shop or eat. But what is important is people and how we take care of each other. We each may only be able to do small things but together they add up to something big.
For myself I have found joy in helping a girl in my daughter’s school. This girl’s parents are divorced and both are struggling with addiction and employment issues. Because COVID has caused us to spend more time at home together we have had my daughter’s friend staying most weekends and some weekdays as well. My daughter and I can make her life a little brighter and safer. This also allows time for her parents to work on their struggles with addiction and employment. It also allows them to save money on food bills. This is a small thing for me to do and a small thing in the grand scheme of things but in the life of this girl and this family it is huge. It is life changing and life affirming.
