“And this, too, shall pass away.” --Persian wisdom saying
It’s the truth I always seem to forget in the midst of
bad times. The wisdom I inevitably
neglect to remember when it feels as if I am up to my eyeballs in trouble. The fact of human existence I ignore when all
I see ahead is darkness or gloom.
This too shall pass.
It’s true about good times and it is true about hard
times as well. Life is always moving, changing, morphing, shifting and transforming
and so even if I fail to do anything to help in this process, life happens anyways.
This too shall pass.
That’s the comfort I am trying to remind myself of
this day, as our nation and world leans into the thick of the coronavirus
pandemic. After watching this tidal wave of fear from afar, it is now crashing
down into the places we call home in this part of the world. As I write this column,
the stock market dropped so fast this morning that trading had to be halted.
The number of cases continues to grow and grow and grow as does our panic in
response to this illness.
Closed schools. Cancelled events like huge trade shows
and music festivals. A run on basic supplies like masks and hand sanitizer and
toilet paper and bottled water and now even food in some places. Planes sit
idle on tarmacs as thousands of folks decide to stay put rather than risk
traveling. Millions of folks on lock downs: 16 million in Italy and 60 million
in China. But can we remember just this one
thing?
This too shall pass.
One of the things I find most vexing about this
current public crisis is that it seems to be as much about our perception of
the event as the reality of the event.
We humans are an odd lot when it comes to fearing the unknown. We don’t
know how far or how fast or how bad this will turn out. The overwhelming number of people who have
gotten sick get better. The number of
cases in the place where it all started—China—drops each day as that fire now
seems to be dying down.
Yet still, social anxiety rises day by day. The herd mentality of running for the exits
sweeps up so many of us in its energy. Add on to this the misinformation that’s
being spread, especially on social media, and just too much information and
news through our phones and TVs and computers and radio and you’ve got a
perfect storm of worldwide fear. A virus
as much about the emotional as the physical.
This too shall pass.
To trust in this spiritual truth does not mean we are
passive in the face of this event. There
is in fact much we can do right now, and it is not merely eschewing shaking
hands or coughing in your arm or staying home if you are sick or addictively consuming
news .
We can reach out to those who are afraid or alone or
both, and let them know that we are here for them, no matter what the days
ahead bring. We can pray and take the
burden we might feel upon our own backs and give it over to a power so much
greater than ourselves, greater even than a virus. We can refuse to be caught
in catastrophizing or creating all of these worst case scenarios in our heads.
We can remain calm and carry on. We can
remember times past when our forbears faced even worse situations and somehow
made it through to the other side.
As President Abraham Lincoln once remarked, “’And
this, too, shall pass away.’ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour
of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!”
Here’s a happy truth: spring is coming and summer too.
The tiniest of purple crocuses broke through the soil in front of my home last week, a hopeful sight. There will be a day in the weeks ahead when we will look back upon this chapter
in our shared human life and remember how hard it was and also, about how, eventually,
we made our way through to the other side.
For this too shall pass. Thank God.
Take good care of yourself and take good care of
others too.
Great message Pastor John!
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