QUARANTINE ?

Tuesday, March 17, 2020.

For me this can go into my journal as the first full day of voluntary quarantine in response to the Coronavirus Pandemic. Last night Judy and I attended our final group function: the annual picnic of the Lakeland Community Band. Today Judy has her last public function, serving as an election official for the Florida primary.

We are most likely facing significant changes in what we think of as “normal” life. I have faced three of these major change-makers. Of the three I remember two. The one I don’t remember was the debut of the atomic bomb in August of 1945. I was only just shy of six-months-old and can only guess where I was when it happened. However, I was eighteen when the skies were empty and there were no cartoons on television for a whole weekend. November 22, 1963 was the beginning of twenty-four-hour news coverage with a steady flow of hit-and-miss reports about fluid “facts.”

The other major transition came with the areal assault on two skyscrapers in New York City. I was at that very moment engaged in a conversation with a friend around the question of what would be the defining event of the teenagers of the first decade of the twenty-first century.  

I cannot help but think that those of us who are presently favored with fewer complications right now, would do well to use the moment well rather than fretting over coming changes we cannot foresee. Judy and I are privileged at this stage of the quarantine. The upsetting of our community life has not put us in the distress mode being experienced by many others. Missionary friends, young families, those at risk and caregivers woke up this morning to a full day of decisions, uncertainties and complications. Others are somewhere and need to be somewhere else but cannot get there; many need to get something done and do not have the resources to do it. A growing number are without work; and many more are without resources.

Being among those who are free to pause and think (at the moment), let me reflect on opportunities, be they small or great, which can be snatched up and merged for a chance to pause and take a breath. For example, I am aware of the weird sensation of no deadlines. I’m not glad for the cancellations in my life. Several of them are ministries. Nevertheless, there is a sudden sense of roominess in some parts of the day which may be expandable by readjusting the day’s job list.

Then there is social media. I have a son and family in Brazil, another in North Dakota, and another wading through this pandemic in an RV tour of the country. Thankfully, another son and his family are only a five-or-so minute drive away. Yet, at the moment, all four boys and their mother and I are steadily checking in with each other via WhatsApp. I am looking forward to doing some regular phone and online interaction with friends who won’t be able to bump elbows with a warm body for a while. But, most important, there is (or may come in time) the potential of some dedicated alone time with God. That relates to a very private transitional time in my life. Three days in the spring, early in the twenty-first century, at Judy’s urging, I spent three days in the Adirondacks in New York State. I took no electronic “tools.” Instead, armed with pens and a few books-without-batteries. I immersed myself in the Gospel of Luke, Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and long prayer walks by a lake. The result was life changing; but somewhere along the line the impact began to fade. So, I look forward to blocking off some of this time-rich quarantine for a fresh “immersion” in God’s Word, unattached to any assignment or deadline. I say that as a means of encouraging you to consider doing something similar if God opens up the opportunity of quiet days ahead

May you enjoy the sunshine of God’s face in the haze and daze ahead. (Numbers 6:24-26).

Keep on keeping on. Live forward for God’s glory.