So, I initially started this post sometime in March when we were beginning to go into quarantine- (or was it before then? I don’t even know, time these days, amiright?), but I figured it was high time for me to finish what I had started. I’ll have to admit that I’ve been struggling with maintaining my mental health during this time (not just because of Corona, but that definitely doesn’t help matters either), and even thinking about writing something and sharing it on here which could potentially go to different parts of the world was sending me into dark spirals of heavy anxiety. That being said, you might just wanna skim through the first part, because as I said straight up in the title, it is featuring my stream-of-consciousness. But I also have included a few things that I think God has been teaching me in this time, so buckle up! It’s gon’ be one crazy ride!
Sometime in the tides of March, or possibly much before then…
If you have found yourself onto this page, congratulations! You have been subject to the clickbait of yet another wanna-be writer/artist/struggling young-adult with some stream-of-consciousness-feature that I like to call my writing. I was hoping today, that I would be able to stay inside for the entire day to avoid contact with other people during the corona crisis but alas, life, and being an adult has forced me out nevertheless because I had procrastinated on getting a printer so I could finish doing my taxes, so you guessed it! My Target run had me grabbing all the “essentials”:
- printer
- printer paper
- envelopes for those papers and whatever adulty thing I have to send out into the world
- laundry drying rack- our dryer isn’t working, which is fantastic timing by the way
- dish soap packets
- oh, and scotch tape- in case I find myself in the immediate need to send anything to anyone
I had to refrain myself from going on a Michael’s run as well, since I realized that I had completely forgotten to get gold paint for one of the many art projects I have been yearning to do, and therefore accumulating in my mind, but I shall be getting to that later.
Anyways, circumstances find me sitting inside on such a beautiful day as this, waiting oh-so-patiently for my printer to finally set up (which just so happens to take up 1/3 of my already cramped available desk space *author contemplates storing said printer under the desk, or even under the bed if she gets that desperate*)-then decides when one has crossed the line between the appropriate and inappropriate amount of punctuation — and how to lose readers along a long stream of consciousness that tumbles down and over the ravine-…)*
Anywho, I didn’t mean to write this post to just ramble on and on about random things that no one cares about, or just vent about all of the craziness that has been going on worldwide with this virus. I had an actual motive to write this.
I’ll have to admit that at first, I was very skeptical and lackadaisical about the potentially widespread effects of the Corona Virus on a multitude of people. “I’m healthy,” I would tell myself. “I have absolutely nothing to worry about, and no preexisting medical conditions, so I’m fine. They’ve blown this all out of proportion on the media.”
Maybe they have. But maybe they haven’t. I’m here to tell you that if you’re like me, who’s often prone to worry and fear, I almost went down the dark road of heavy anxiety because even healthy, young people my age, have been getting the virus, and honestly, death does not discriminate.
But I’m also here to tell you that if you have faith in Christ like I do, you have absolutely nothing to fear:
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:8, ESV).
…
The actual present, on the 31st and final day in the Month of “It’s gonna be-” May
This is where I got sidetracked, and so here I am now, sitting here in the present day, also inside on the sunniest of days. For how could I follow up on a verse like that? Unlike some passages of the bible that leave room for many of our interpretations, this passage is clear in saying that if you love Jesus with your whole heart, and you know that Jesus by the Word’s definition is “love”, seen also in 1st John:
“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16b)
Faith and love in Him, and Him alone, has the power to cast out all fear.
No Fear!! Did you hear?? We don’t have to fear sickness or death if we believe in Him! We don’t have to fear the crash of our economy if we trust, and love Him!
Please know, nevertheless, that I am not trying to minimize anyone’s legitimate feelings of fear, especially those who may be currently in the hospital battling for their lives, and fearing death, or even those who fear going outside and possibly contracting the disease, even if they may have a compromised immune system. What I am trying to say is that in God’s love, there is hope for a future, and a life in a heavenly place without struggle, since struggle, sin, and death is bound to happen. Even though every day recently has seemed like a different passage from Revelation, Revelation does reveal God’s promise to His children, in the promise of a future in Heaven:
“‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away'” (Revelation 21:4).
He has created all of us in his image, and he wants to have a relationship with us, since His desire is to be in fellowship and love with us before Adam and Eve succumbed to sin. The aftermath of that choice is death, and eternal separation from God, in addition to sickness, and the everyday struggles of life. But God never wanted us to struggle, but because of human nature, struggle is the side effect of sin.
Therefore, let us have faith in our scientists, and all of the front liners, be it the nurses and doctors who are working one on one with patients who have tested positive for the disease. Let us pray for the janitors, receptionists, office managers who also work in those same hospitals, and are potentially exposed to the virus and could bring it home to their families every day. Pray also for all the individuals working in animal hospitals, car shops, restaurants, cafes, postal and delivery services, because though most of the world has seemed to have been put on pause, they are still needed to serve and care for their animal patients, and human customers respectively. Pray too for our economy, especially the small businesses, and the thousands upon thousands of people who have lost their jobs. Let us have faith and pray for our leaders, because God has put them in those places, even though they too, sometimes (or unfortunately, all the time) fuel ignorance and hate from their supporters.
In light of the recent events regarding hate for our brothers and sisters with different-colored skin from ours, 1st John also has something to say about that too.
“We love because he first loved us. If anyone says ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (4:19-21).
So much of these hate crimes are born in ignorance, since ignorance breeds fear, fear brings hate, then hate leads to death. I cannot even begin to imagine what it is like to have darker color skin, and to live in that constant fear for my life, or even for the lives of my family and friends only due to the colors of our skin. I am so outraged and grieved for you, and my soul is so heavy for any of you that have to go through this on a daily basis. Please know that my thoughts and prayers are with you, and I will do all that I can to listen to you, and try to understand even in my own ignorance. I will do my best to stand with you, and support you, even though I myself am certainly not immune to fear and anxiety.
But please do remember, while the crimes that have been committed have been truly heinous, the answer to end this violence is not to respond by violence. Martin Luther King Jr. so wisely stated:
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction … The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation (1963)” (taken from https://mlk.wsu.edu/about-dr-king/famous-quotes/).
This is certainly an echo of what John was saying in 1 John:4, so if the Bible says it, and it is also repeated by Martin Luther King Jr. a few thousand years later, it must be important right?
So while we are praying for our first responders, our brothers and sisters with darker skin, let us also pray for our police officers, who are currently feeling discriminated against, and even incriminated by the actions of their fearful team-mates. Many of them too are so disgusted with the crimes that have happened, and want to try to repair the wounds of those who have been wronged, but don’t even know where to start.
So let’s give that a chance. Let us turn a leaf in this book, and try to live by the words of 1st John, and live in the perfect love that is found in our savior, Jesus Christ. Let us stand in love that isn’t shaken by the fear of sickness or death, and let us learn to listen to others who are different from us.
Let us live in love, live in God, and love one another. No matter what.
Vale Baile 