How’s This Pandemic Treating You?

“Give your entire attention

to what God is doing right now,

and don’t get worked up about

what may or may not happen tomorrow.

God will help you deal with

whatever hard things come up 

when the time comes.”

— Christ Jesus, Matthew 6:34, the Message version

In a childhood Sunday School Class we learned some Bible verses.

One that grabbed hold of me long before I had any clue what it might mean began with Jesus saying, Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (My wife Patty jokingly says that with a childhood like that, it’s no surprise I gravitated to 20th Century German Literature.) (She is joking, right?)

As in so many other instances, Gene Peterson’s Message version of The Bible is almost clarifying commentary.  Matthew 6 comes to us there as Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

So how are you holding up in this ongoing pandemic’s seemingly endless flare ups and our attendant restrictions?

From Elena Mikhalkova comes this advice —

My grandmother once gave me a tip:

In difficult times,

you move forward in small steps.

Do what you have to do,

but little by little.

Don’t think about the future,

or what may happen tomorrow.

Wash the dishes.

Remove the dust.

Write a letter.

Make a soup.

You see?

You are advancing step by step.

Take a step and stop.

Rest a little.

Praise yourself.

Take another step.

Then another.

You won’t notice, but your steps

will grow more and more.

And the time will come

when you can think about the future

without crying.

—- Couple that Grandma’s advice and the directive from our Lord. Join me as together we give our entire attention to what God is doing right now, and let’s move forward in small steps.

Starting today.

As in, right now.

 

 

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