Viral Learnings, Part One: Not In Spite Of but Through

Photo by Claire Rodahaver on Unsplash

At the start of this week, I was seeing this challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic as something like a tunnel; just something we need to buckle down and get through. Since I pastor a local church where pretty much everything we do is about tangible, in-person relationships, the idea of going only online for Worship, having every meeting through Zoom, and not being able to meet people for coffee or lunch to talk feels like a complete reversal of the incarnational nature of the church. But we do it because we are forced to. 

With that in mind, my mindset was wartime; bunker down, send up smoke signals once in a while (aka weekly online Worship and emails), make it as good as possible, remain a non-anxious presence; with the goal to come out on the other side as unfazed as possible, pick up the pieces, and carry on where we left off.

But now, I'm not sure that's true. Or even possible.

First off, there are no experiences of tragedy and fear that fail to leave indelible imprints on the heart and soul. Just as men and women who have endured war torn pasts as refugees, soldiers, or victims of violence, one doesn't get through life unscathed. The scars always remain. It's impossible to make it through a dark tunnel without bringing part of the tunnel with you.

But maybe that is ok.

My Dayle came home from school Thursday knowing that school had been cancelled as said, "I'm really sad to not be able to see my friends and miss out on all the fun parts of school. But we are living in an historic time, and we will be affected by it forever." From the mouths of babes (or teens in this case). She knows that this is a sad and scary time, but it will be formative. Forever. Her life (and all of our lives) will forever be changed because of this challenging season. 

That is good for us to remember. This isn't just a dark tunnel to go through. It is a dark night where we will come to learn some things about ourselves and ultimately about God; that God walks with us through the darkness and we come out changed. 

"If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You" (Psalm 139:11,12).

And so because that is true, we don't keep going  in spite of the pandemic, but we look to grow through it. The core of our faith in Jesus Christ is that God chose to walk with us through our sufferings. In so doing, we are drawn closer to him and actually have the possibility of a deeper experience of him than ever before. 

Because of that belief, we can have comfort and hope that we will grow through this pandemic, not in spite of it, but through it. Looking at it this way helps me lean into this fearful, anxiety laden, and destabilizing time, asking God what we might learn through it all. 

Because the fact is that we will learn something. If we are ready to see it.