The harsh reality of individuals being tested to their limits is visible across the world as we know it. A seemingly endless pandemic touches rich and poor in every community. Economic uncertainty has become a new norm. One is facing endless new unknowns which, for me at least, makes the life I knew seem like a distant memory.
One never knows if today will end as it began. Will a new variant emerge which changes the way we behave as a community? Is the weather going to throw an event of the century? Is the final piece of evidence that we do not deal with tyrants and exploiters going to finally cause us to stand up as a community and say, enough! Whatever certainty I had yesterday is no longer present today.
If you had asked me if I was at the end of my rope a few months ago, I would have said “yes”! Yet, the ability of the human spirit to endure more than one ever imagines has been repeatedly proven. Just when I think I cannot take anything more, more “stuff” lands. Red lines are crossed, reset, and crossed again. Somehow each day brings just enough courage, resilience, and hope that one survives to face the next.
In the soft dusty morning dawn of a winter day, I find myself thinking about the hidden benefits of my new reality. While I might wish life was different, I am discovering a new benefit I never imagined. An old writer described truth in the chaos of our pandemic reality. “Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.” (James 1.12).
Life’s whisper is a constant reminder, look to the sources of courage, resilience, and hope. Seek them out and spend time with them. For me, they are found in seeing and experiencing acceptance and belonging, restorative healing during the dark night of one’s soul, and in the hope in each day’s new beginning.
