Wednesday, May 20, 2020

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25, New Living Translation) 

                The things one learns during a pandemic:

·         I like canned vegetables better than frozen vegetables.

·         I can’t cook Minute Rice for the life of me. I can whip up a nearly gourmet-type meal but my Minute Rice is a crunchy risotto mess. 

·         Dogs don’t care about Covid19. They love having everyone home all the time.

·         I don’t really mind now standing in a line, six feet apart, waiting to get into a grocery or drug store. Normally, I hate line-ups and waiting.

·         Just when gas is so cheap, my car’s gas tank is still almost three-quarters full after filling up well over six weeks ago. It also does wonders for the mileage limits on our car lease. 

·         I am very glad that I got a buzz cut before we went to Florida in March. My hair – what little there is of it anyway - still doesn’t need combing. (My mother would have been going nuts if she couldn’t have her hair done once a week.)

·         We go through a lot more coffee when my wife is home and not at work. 

Pretty trivial and unimportant stuff, am I right? What will you remember from out of these times in which we are living?  Are you getting cabin fever yet? Are you yelling at the birds? Apparently, they seem much louder to some people because there is less noise pollution to drown them out. How’s the homeschooling been going? New appreciation for school teachers, eh? They should be paid like rock stars.

We will come out of this time period with very different experiences, memories and stories to tell. Some will be very painful and sad memories. But most of us will reflect on the small inconveniences, the minor delays, the unimportant frustrations and the small but bothersome interruptions in our usual daily routines. In the long run it may help us appreciate the small things in life and not take them for granted. Although it has been harder on some than others, we will all be relieved when things get back to normal, whatever normal may be.

In our text, Jesus is encouraging us to reflect on those aspects of life that transcend the basic needs for food and clothing and even shelter. I don’t think he meant that these fundamental needs are not important but that a full life is more than a full belly alone. This concurs with what Jesus said when he was being tempted by Satan to satisfy his appetite, “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4, NLT) I am also reminded of the Beatitude: “God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6, NLT)

God forbid that the inconsequential ever dominates my life or that I drown in the trivial anxiety of wishing I had more of something or fretting that my life is just a lottery win away from true happiness.

I enjoy my “bread-and-butter” as much as the next person and I have been blessed that I have never really gone without in my life. I also recognize that hunger and poverty are a real pandemic in their own right throughout the world. But I also appreciate very keenly how full my life is because of family, friends and the experiences, ideas, thinking, abilities with the gifts and talents I have which all have given me so much to make life interesting, worthwhile and meaningful.  Moreover, it is a life that has been graced and led by God through Jesus Christ, granting me much joy, yet challenging me to do good and be good, inviting me to share in being a part of Kingdom building and living.

I’m not perfect by a long shot but God has gotten me this far; so, I am going to trust him for the rest of this journey.  

Dale