I have no advice on the current coronavirus crisis. But I do have a lot of thoughts, from the perspective of a lifelong shepherd who has seen my share of calamity. Allow me to share them with you, in hopes of keeping our spirits strong and faithful.<\/p>\n
I appreciate how we can laugh at ourselves and with one another while the world rapidly changes around us\u2026or, \u2018when everything not nailed down is comin\u2019 loose…as someone said about something, one time.<\/p>\n
As the prayer of faith begins in James 5:13 begins: Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.<\/em><\/p>\n In 1940, when Hitler\u2019s bombs were pummeling London, the British were suffering, frightened, and dealing with death. But they remembered to laugh. A bombed-out restaurant or store would post a sign out front the next day saying, \u201cYes, we\u2019re open.\u201d Google \u201cWorld War Two jokes\u201d and you\u2019ll find a thousand.<\/p>\n My favorite funny of this week during the COVID-19 crisis was the guy who said, \u201cI have washed my hands so much I\u2019ve now uncovered the answers to the 9th-grade math quiz.\u201d<\/p>\n A friend sent a photo of the bathroom tissue holder, showing each segment of paper labeled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and so on. The caption read: \u201cProblem Solved.\u201d The background to this, of course, is the way people are stocking up on toilet paper. It\u2019s an odd happening but no one has ever been able to figure out why people do what they do.<\/p>\n A friend in South Louisiana said they\u2019re cleaning the groceries out of bottled water. \u201cEven if we all get the virus,\u201d he said, \u201cour water should be fine. So, what\u2019s with everyone buying water?\u201d I suspect it\u2019s because that\u2019s what they do when a hurricane is threatening.<\/p>\n My friend Shawn Parker is the newly installed executive of Mississippi Baptists. On Wednesday I asked whether he had called his predecessor, Jim Futral, and asked if he wanted this job back. He laughed and said, \u201cI called him and said, \u2018Where is your file on Coronavirus?\u2019 He said, \u2018Check under the heading \u2018Katrina.’\u201d Ha…true enough.<\/p>\n A cartoon showed a family hunkered down in their storm cellar, with mounds of toilet tissue around them. The dad says, \u201cDid anyone think to buy food?\u201d<\/p>\n Thank God for the ability to laugh. Let\u2019s keep doing that.<\/p>\n We should all be praying often generally, but sometimes we need to pray specifically and pointedly.<\/p>\n A friend texted early this morning to say her adult daughter who lives in another state has been diagnosed with the coronavirus. I\u2019ve replied that we share their pain on that and are praying, and she should keep us informed. The daughter is young and should do well, from all we\u2019re told. But we now have a name to specifically pray for.<\/p>\n Sometimes when I\u2019m praying, I find myself asking the Lord to \u201cbless America during this time,\u201d but immediately I recall that it\u2019s not just our country but the entire world. Truly a global phenomenon, the very definition of a pandemic.<\/p>\n More than anything I pray, \u201cFather, thy will be done.\u201d And the prayer of Jehoshaphat, \u201cLord, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee\u201d (2 Chronicles 20:12). And \u201cbless our leadership, Father. Show them the way.\u201d<\/p>\n We need as much normalcy as it\u2019s possible to get while the world is changing right before our eyes.<\/p>\n This morning\u2019s paper says the city of Jackson, Mississippi has shut down all bars and is limiting restaurants to take-out only. Our spirits need some things to stay normal, as much as possible. That\u2019s why I was glad to find bananas at Walmart early yesterday morning. We keep bananas here at the house. As well as strawberries, blueberries, and large seedless grapes. Oh, and Blue Bell Natural Vanilla Bean ice cream. I\u2019ll be fine as long as we have these. Smile, please.<\/p>\n As a retired preacher, my schedule stays fairly full going from one church to another, doing senior meetings in churches, the occasional revival or deacons training. I get invited to sketch at children\u2019s functions, for charitable ministries, public libraries, and the like.<\/p>\n But these days, I\u2019m getting several cancellations each day. And there will be more. For how long, only the Lord knows. And He ain\u2019t telling.<\/p>\n So, our spirits need as much normalcy as we can generate. To watch the same television programs that always brought us comfort, however small. To talk with the same friends, although by phone now. To walk in the same parks.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a matter of keeping our sanity. And our balance.<\/p>\n A cartoon showed a family hunkered down in their storm cellar, with mounds of toilet tissue around them. The dad says, \u201cDid anyone think to buy food?\u201d<\/p>\n Thank God for the ability to laugh. Let\u2019s keep doing that.<\/p>\n The single thing we may be assured of is that the longer this goes on, the more life will change forever. Life as we know it, may never return to what it was before.<\/p>\n In New Orleans and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, they refer to BK and AK, before and after Hurricane Katrina. Life changed forever when that storm blew through at the end of August 2005. We may say the same about the coronavirus hurricane: Nothing will ever be the same.<\/p>\n During this time when churches are not meeting, new forms of ministry and outreach will be created or uncovered or rediscovered. Some will be an improvement over how we did things before. No one knows what they will be.<\/p>\n I wonder if our churches will find themselves after this is over with huge empty buildings we no longer need because we have found better ways to meet and worship and serve. I\u2019m wondering is all, not predicting.<\/p>\n Dear Lord, help us to be faithful. This is war, although the enemy is invisible and we\u2019re still in search of the weapon that will mean his undoing. But when this war is over\u2014and that is exactly what it is\u2014may those who come behind us find us still faithful. For Jesus\u2019 sake. By Jesus\u2019 blood. In Jesus\u2019 name. Amen. <\/em><\/p>\n Postscript:<\/strong> I have no advice on the current coronavirus crisis. But I do have a lot of thoughts, from the perspective of a lifelong shepherd who has seen my share of calamity. Allow me to share them with you, in hopes of keeping our spirits strong and faithful. 1. Stay Positive and Joyful I appreciate how we … Continue reading “4 Practical Tips for Staying Positive in a Coronavirus World”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2. Keep Praying<\/strong><\/h2>\n
3. Maintain Normalcy as Possible<\/strong> <\/h2>\n
4. Welcome Change<\/strong><\/h2>\n
On September 1, 2005, a couple of days after Katrina had blown through our part of the world and we began to see that our part of the world had changed forever, I began to write about it on this website. For the next two years, every article posted here dealt with what was happening in New Orleans and the rebuilding of our city. For the COVID-19 reality, I promise not to write exclusively about it\u2013how depressing that would be\u2013but to leave the occasional posting here on what\u2019s going on where we live, and how we are experiencing this new reality. If for no other reason, it\u2019ll be a historical record. My great-grandchildren (or theirs!) will want to know. <\/em>Posted in Teaching<\/p>\n