Day 248: How to Cope When Everything Keeps Changing

 

DAY 248

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Thirty-six    Tuesday 17 November 2020

How to Cope When Everything Keeps Changing

“How do you make plans when it’s impossible to make plans? The ground beneath our feet is constantly shifting. Planning for anything more than a week out can feel futile – almost silly – since no one knows what next week, much less the next month, will bring. A surge in virus cases in your area? More lockdowns? Worrying about natural disasters? And concerns about health and financial well-being make matters even worse. The questions are endless, and the answers are always changing.” - From a recent newspaper article by the same title.

Everyone needs a measure of consistency in their lives, to feel secure and to be able to navigate those places and times when change, often unanticipated, comes our way. Rarely avoidable, it falls to us to decide how we will respond, as most changes do not give us the option of opting out. The absence of an ability to respond to change in a grounded way is contributing to a significant rise in a percentage of the population of the planet, as well as our own nation, exhibiting emotional health issues and experiencing mental health crises.

What to do? More than anything we need to stay connected – to family, to friends, to co-workers, to neighbors, to acquaintances in social and civic organizations, and stay connected to others in our worshipping communities. In these days of so many closures and so many shifts to Zoom ‘gatherings,’ it is too easy to unknowingly become emotionally and relationally isolated.  

Staying connected to our worshipping communities is critical for it is where we collectively connect with the unchanging presence of the Triune God who says to us “I am the Lord, I change not.” Malachi 3:6. While we can read our Bibles and pray alone at home, there is something specific about gathering with others, even by Zoom or a pre-recorded service: hymns, Scriptures, prayers, and sermons are used by the Holy Spirit to touch our lives - in specific ways - with the life of Jesus. In these contexts, there are sovereign times of forgiveness, of healing, of the impartation of hope and peace, and of reminders that we are not alone in all that is happening.       

Reflective question: Will you make a list today of steps you need to take to stay connected to others?  

Reflective Scripture: Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  

Reflective hymn: 

“Yesterday, Today, Forever” – A.B. Simpson (1843-1919)

Oh, how sweet the glorious message simple faith may claim:

Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same;

Still He loves to save the sinful, heal the sick and lame,

Cheer the mourner, still the tempest glory to His name!