Covid-19

A SETBACK TO 2020

/ joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

The night before last my grandson awoke from sleep crying and wheezing. My son and daughter-in-law packed him up into the car and were off to the emergency room at 2 A.M.

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The day before he had been bitten by a mosquito and the bite had swelled up into a giant egg on his leg, so the chief concern was all the fall viruses that come in our area with mosquito bites, like West Nile virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

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Several towns in our state have put restrictions on afternoon sports programs and other youth activities because of an increase in the number of cases of these dangerous diseases.

As it turns out Sevy does not have West Nile or EEE. He has Covid. And Kristine is also displaying symptoms. Amanda has also tested positive. Amanda has just completed radiation treatments, and so the concern about her immune system’s ability to fight the sickness is pretty high. She also cannot take the medication for Covid offered to many immuno-compromised individuals because of the kind of cancer she had.

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Everyone is doing OK this morning. Sevy’s breathing seems to be good now that he is on steroids. Kristine has mild cold systems, and Amanda is experiencing more flu like symptoms but no breathing issues. Joe and I are testing negative, symptom free and feeling fine.

This morning I got up and sanitized both bathrooms and all the living room and dining room furniture.

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Amanda is quarantining in her room with Bakari, her kitten.

Kristine and Sevy are quarantining in their bedroom and the playroom.

Joe and I are doing the household chores. Yesterday I made a corn chowder for lunch and a macaroni salad and hotdogs and cheeseburgers for supper. We bought some ginger to make tea along with all the medicines we will need over the next couple of days.

It feels like a throwback to 2020, but it is different. Back then the whole world went quiet. This time we are stepping aside a bit but the world is still spinning.

I AM WONDERING, IN THE NEW NORMAL DO YOU FEEL GUILTY WHEN YOU HAVE TO PULL BACK FROM THE WORLD TO QUARANTINE OR TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF OR WAS THAT ISSUE SOLVED FOR YOU BACK IN 2020?

In the Midst

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

Last week our grocery store started limiting the number of people who could go in at one time. One in one out, is the new rule.

This week we were asked to start shopping in two week stints to limit the amount of exposure each of us have to the public, as cases of the Covid-19 mount across the state. I could feel the fear as I was shopping yesterday. One man yelled at me when I pulled down my face mask for a moment to defog my glasses.

In the midst of our world falling apart around us by bits and pieces, I have been “attending” an on-line retreat regarding the sorrows of Passion Week. Today our leader in the retreat wrote this:

“Where is our hope? Our hope is in a God who died publicly humiliated outside the walls of a minor city in a great empire. This God is not a God for winners, not a God who makes us great again. We believe in a God who throws the rich from their thrones and lifts up the lowly. Our God dies daily, alongside the poor, the outcast, the immigrant child, the fearful and victimized, the one who dies alone. Our hope is in a God who chooses humility, a God who bows deeply, who suffers with us, even unto death. A God who dies daily alongside those in this plague, who knows the fear of those who serve others in this pandemic, who knows the avoidance of those who would rather go back to sleep.” Almut Furchert

I am struck by the phrase, “Our hope is in a God who chooses humility, a God who bows deeply,”

When, besides the cross, in all of the worlds religions did a god choose humility? IN the cross God bowed low!!!!

For me this time has been a very humbling experience. I got sick at the beginning of the shut- in and my voice has not yet returned (I am thanking God that this sickness was not as serious as it could have been). I have not led worship in something like seven weeks. This has been one of my lamentations during this season. It felt like a loss ( not so much the loss of worship but of my voice), but God has showed me that this is the moment I have prayed for. In my inability, younger men have stepped to the plate and worship has gone on, and there is actually a liberation in that!

The whole church is being humbled as we approach this Easter weekend. We are being forced to do away with the pomp and circumstance which generally go with this season. We are being forced to return to the simplicity of the cross: no frills, no stirring music or acting, no lights or crowds, just a naked Savior hanging, dying on a cross. Perhaps in the midst of our world falling apart this will be one of the most powerful Easters the church has experienced in many years simply because we cannot make it about us or our attempts at personal kingdom building. It must be completely about Jesus.

God is changing me through this experience. He is moving me ,in the midst of it, into the new place He has been promising to being me. He is accomplishing His prophesied move in our church at Cornerstone and He is fulfilling His prophesied word in the church world- wide. The church is being humbled. As the crucifixion of Christ was God’s plan to bring about Christ’s Resurrection then, this crucifixion we are experiencing has a resurrection attached to it as well. Hold onto that.