I know that I’m behind in my movie experience, but I just started watching The Hobbit series, since I have so much time, and when I hear the character Gandalf speak, I’m usually grabbing for a pen to write down his wisdom. It started in the beginning when he stated, “Where sickness thrives, bad things will follow.” How appropriate for our current state of being. We have a physical sickness thriving throughout our world and already we can see the bad things following. It’s how we respond that will make a difference in our relations with others.
The sickness of coronavirus revealed the evil of social media. Scroll through social media and you will recognize the anger seething in people. Anger is not a sin; it’s what you do when you are angry that is a sin. When you belittle people or guilt-shame people, it’s sin. In the social media world, we have to remember most of us do not put our whole lives on the Internet. How we respond when someone disagrees with us reveals more about us then it does with the person who disagrees with us. If we are kind and gracious and explain ourselves, we reveal our kindness. If we are name-calling, belittling, and guilt-shaming, then we reveal to be angry and bitter people who struggle in life and refuse to deal with our own lives. First, we need to heal our own hurts, and then we can begin to inspire others. Now is the time that people need life affirming words not insults, belittlement, and guilt-shaming.
When the coronavirus began in America, panic ensued and people hoarded food, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and water. When people fear, they don’t share resources but they hoard them. Now that time has passed, items are returning to store shelves, but we have to recognize that as a society, we tend to hoard. I hoard books. We hoard because we fear we will not have it in the future. With sickness, we hoard food and water because we want survival, not realizing that the most important action we could take with this sickness was to think of others and not hoard.
Murders occurred before the pandemic, but the videos went out during the pandemic and protests occurred. The protests revealed another sickness in our society and that is racism. Evil has ensued because of racism. People are tearing down people and not listening to them or being rude when they ask a question. It’s time that we listen and ask sincere questions. It’s time for many to become good teachers and answer those pesky questions with grace and love so that the person asking can learn, or else the sickness of racism will get worse, which will make life worse for all.
The sickness of COVID-19 caused businesses to close for a short while, but for some businesses the short while was too much and they had to close permanently or scale back on their employees. Many people lost their jobs. The sickness caused many to spiral into poverty. Instead of screaming at people on social media, it’s time we all look to those we can help, even if it is just purchasing something small on the Internet.
The sickness of coronavirus caused everyone to quarantine and stay in their homes. For the short term, many people were able to clean their homes, connect with their family, and finish projects that they started. After about two weeks, emotions raged. People spun into depression. Anxiety is high in homes where children are frustrated with homeschooling and not being able to play with friends. We all need to take the time to reach out to those who may be struggling with being home.
The coronavirus thrived and bad things have occurred. We cannot continue to allow the bad things to happen. We need to be aware of what we say and do in order to have good things happen. When we are healthy emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, we just might also become healthy physically. The Bible gives great advice. “Be quick to listen and slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” James 1:19 (NIV) We need to listen before we speak, and when we do speak, we need to speak the truth in love not anger. We don’t need to win arguments. We need to listen. We need to speak with wisdom and truth in love. Let’s conquer the bad and the sickness may just diminish. I’m not a doctor or an expert, but I do know from experience that when love surrounds people, health abounds.
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