Pastors' Blog

Three days into our Michigan coronavirus lockdown, I'm already wondering, "How long does all this last?" Not that I'm impatient, mind you. But like you, I'm eager for the pandemic to be conquered, for the sick to be healed, for the rest of us to be saved, and for life to move beyond these four walls!

But assuming we're going to be here for a bit (home-bound), I’ll be sending you a weekly blog that connects the life of the Spirit with life in a pandemic. (If you wish to subscribe to the blog, go to www.pmchurch.org/blog.)

Let's open with this story (USA Today) sent me by a friend—about a 60-year-old pet-sitter named Amy McDonald (Fishers, Indiana). Her business, Amy’s Critter Care, focuses on giving day-time TLC (like long walks) to pets whose owners work away from home. But with the advent of the pandemic, her clients obviously aren't needing anybody to watch their pets—everybody’s home. So Amy has been seeking ways to look out for some of her elderly neighbors.

Nearby Amy is 89-year-old Jo Trimble, who lives in a neighborhood filled with elderly, one of the higher risk populations for the pandemic. For Jo and the senior community, "the threat of infection hangs over every interaction as coronavirus spreads."

Tuesday, Amy headed out to collect grocery orders from some of these elderly neighbors. She knocked on Trimble's door, knowing Jo lived alone. "When Trimble opened the door, she told McDonald to stay back: She had a stomach virus and didn’t feel well." Amy could have walked away, but she insisted Jo give her a grocery list. 

When McDonald returned with the groceries, the elderly Jo looked paler than before. "'I feel horrible,' she said.'" Again, Amy "could have set down the groceries and backed away." But instead, she took the bags to the kitchen, while Jo laid down on the sofa. "McDonald was going to leave, but something in her couldn't. She texted a neighbor who was a retired nurse for advice." When Jo's daughter called to check how her sick mother was faring, Trimble handed the phone to Amy, who instructed the daughter to hurry down. "'I'm not going to leave your mother,' she said.”

A little while later, Trimble vomited, complained of chest pains, and mumbled, I need help. Amy called 911. When the paramedics arrived, they were in full coronavirus mode with masks and talking to Jo from a distance. "Trimble was having a heart attack. The symptoms for women can be subtle, manifesting as uncomfortable pressure or shortness of breath. Her left anterior descending artery was completely blocked, a type of heart attack so lethal it is called a widow maker."

At Community Hospital North Trimble was rushed into surgery. It saved her life. Isolated now in the hospital she can talk to family over the phone. Daughter Kelly remarked, "'I saw three clear distinct times where Amy had contact with my mother where she could've easily walked away. [But] Amy persisted.'"

And it all began with Amy taking an interest in an elderly neighbor. She showed up—and that was the life-saving difference. 

What can we be going in this season of the pandemic, we who are not in the at-risk populace? This idea of grocery shopping on behalf of our senior citizens (who would prefer not stepping into the environment of a well-traveled store) makes sense, doesn't it? So much so we have put together just such a ministry for our Pioneer parish. Please go to pmchurch.org/covid-19. You may volunteer to be a community shopper, you may let us know you’d like to have one of your fellow members shop for you, or you may check out the community resources—three easy buttons to click.

Be clear about this—the story of Amy and Jo is not advocating we ignore the issue of contagion and infection. All contact during this state of emergency needs to be within the boundaries of medically recommended/CDC protocol and distance. (Leaving groceries on a doorstep, sending payment by check through the mail, et al.)

The point of this story is with one website click (I Want to Volunteer), you can become Love on the Move for someone in need. So I say, God bless all of us who are willing to step outside our four walls and maybe even our comfort zone to be Love on the Move for Jesus. "'Truly I tell you, whatever you [do] for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you [do] for Me'" (Matthew 25:40).

A colleague of mine sent me a YouTube clip reporting on the efficacy (or the lack thereof) of the now ubiquitous face masks popping up globally (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M7saVTtBQI). Turns out the drug store variety surgical masks (while they do help you from spreading your cold to others) provide too flimsy a seal to keep airborne viruses away from your mouth and nose. The more expensive n95 respirator mask offers a tighter seal, but all day usage ends up restricting necessary oxygen flow to the wearer. 

Meanwhile, the plunge of global financial markets this week, in reaction to the spreading coronavirus, reflects investors’ jittery nerves, worried over how the contagion will negatively impact economic expansion and interrupt global supply chains. The health minister of Iran, after warning the nation of the coronavirus now inside its borders, contracted the virus. And the mayor of San Francisco this week declared a state of emergency for the city over the coronavirus, without a single case reported there! All of this a telling reflection of the alarm that itself is spreading along with the virus.

Health authorities continue to emphasize common-sense hygiene practices may be the best deterrent to contracting the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). The World Health Organization’s website offers these recommendations: (1) wash your hands frequently with soap and water or alcohol-based hand rub; (2) maintain social distance (at least 3 feet from someone coughing or sneezing—good luck with that on a plane!); (3) avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth; (4) cover your mouth and nose with bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze; (5) if you have a fever and are coughing with difficulty breathing, "seek medical care early”; and (6) stay informed and follow your health provider’s advice (www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public).

“Dear friends, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well” (3 John 2).

Sometimes the best deterrent to the infection of common sin is to emphasize common sense spiritual hygiene: (1) spend 15-20 minutes every morning meditating on a fresh story about Jesus from the Gospels (or Desire of Ages); (2) spend ten minutes on your knees in quiet conversation with your Savior; (3) don’t forget to ask Him for a fresh, daily baptism of the Holy Spirit in your life (Luke 11:13); (4) ask Him to help you connect with someone today who needs your contagious witness of Jesus’ love (become Love on the Move); (5) be available all day long for God’s promptings to help someone (even a stranger) in need; and (6) do not wear a mask over your heart—let the goodness, grace, peace, hope, and love of Christ spread from you to all you meet.

And what’s the benefit of this common-sense spiritual hygiene? “The effort to bless others will react in blessings upon ourselves. This was the purpose of God in giving us a part to act in the plan of redemption. . . . This is the highest honor, the greatest joy, that it is possible for God to bestow upon [us]. Those who thus become participants in labors of love are brought nearest to their Creator” (Steps to Christ 79).

And when you’re that near to your Creator, there really is no need for a mask at all.

Have you been able to figure out this coronavirus contagion? I am no epidemiologist; but, if you listen to the news, you get the impression this viral epidemic is in rapid spread mode. It is at least in the coronavirus epicenter in China—where new ten-day hospitals are springing up—that’s right a 1000-bed hospital in ten days (www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/china-races-build-hospitals-coronavirus-outbreak-grows-200205033913557.html). 

Hong Kong has partially closed its borders to travelers from the mainland, and medical workers are striking until the border is completely sealed, while all travelers to Hong Kong from the mainland now face a 14-day mandatory quarantine (www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51389490). The BBC further reports 24,300 confirmed cases and 490 deaths on the mainland in China.

The global infection has now spread to 26 countries, leading the World Health Organization to declare the coronavirus a global health emergency, infecting more than 20,000 people outside of China (www.cnn.com/2020/02/04/health/who-coronavirus-not-pandemic/index.html).

I'm no epidemiologist, but like you, I am an observer of life on this planet. Every fresh crisis triggers fears. The markets tumble. Oil prices now are predicted to drop $5 a barrel. Hyundai is suspending production in South Korea because of supply chain problems in China. Airlines are canceling their flights to Hong Kong and China. All in reaction to the coronavirus.

How shall we respond? Buying face masks is one way people are reacting. But medical specialists doubt the efficacy of masks, especially for those trying to keep viruses out. The protocol recommended is frequent hand-washing and refraining from touching your face with unwashed hands (www.cnbc.com/2020/02/04/coronavirus-who-on-the-lessons-learned-from-the-sars-epidemic.html).

But beyond that, we who follow Jesus can respond in two ways. First, we can pray for the victims of the coronavirus and for the medical staff who attend the ill. Our Love on the Move prayers can intercede for sufferers and care-givers near and far, country by country, bringing a fresh focus to the biblical admonition that “petitions, prayers, intercessions . . . be made for all people” (1 Timothy 2:1).

Second, we can remember the somber prediction of Jesus, “‘There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places. . . . People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world” (Luke 21:11, 26). It is fear and apprehension “of what is coming on the world” that triggers so much of human reaction to global crises. Nobody said the times before the return of our Lord would be a cakewalk. But in contrast to a jittery public, let us move among our neighbors and through our communities as Love on the Move would do. It isn’t the coronavirus sufferers we are meeting, but people all around us suffer for a host of other reasons. For each “neighbor” we meet, for each person in need along our pathway, let’s stop beside them and let the genuine compassion and care of Jesus for them reflect from our actions to them.

We can't cure the whole world, but we can become healing Love on the Move right now—like the Good Samaritan—just like Jesus.

Drones and missiles—intended precision, intended misses?—what just happened? Perhaps the simplest explanation is it’s the New Year. Again. And nothing’s changed really.

Not that the world was expecting much of a change. Life goes on, pretty much paying back in the cyclical currency we’re all used to—night and day, hot and cold, wet and dry, happy and sad, up and down, peace and war, strong and weak, love and hate, fear and calm, winners and losers, haves and have-nots, and on and on. Human, planetary cycles—we get it, we live with their ebb and flow.

So when sudden change strikes—anywhere, anytime—our status quo is shattered, because the familiar cycle is broken. And suddenly—personally or collectively—we’re on red alert—just like this New Year’s beginning.

What’s so fascinating is both Jesus and Paul zero in on that sudden unexpectedness. In fact, both of them identify sudden, unexpected violence as the critical marker for the earth’s endgame.

Jesus somberly reminds us of two ancient events—the antediluvian flood and the incineration of Sodom and Gomorrah, both classic reminders of sudden, unexpected violence. “‘As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man”—sudden, unexpected violence (Matthew 24:37). “‘It was the same in the days of Lot. . . . It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed’”—sudden, unexpected violence (Luke 17:28, 20).

Then Paul shapes Jesus’ twin warnings into his own prophetic caution: “For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape”—sudden, unexpected violence (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3).

The point is not about living in fear—humanity already has a nervous twitch. Truth is the friends of Jesus have nothing to fear—nail-scarred hands securely hold all our lives. The point rather is Now is the perfect time for Love to be on the move, really on the move. What a force for good in the midst of endemic uncertainty! Imagine it—the incarnated love of Jesus crisscrossing this campus, this community, this country, this civilization through the humble, compassionate likes of you and me. Would it be a game-changer? Are you kidding! “If we would humble ourselves before God, and be kind and courteous and tenderhearted and pitiful [full of pity], there would be one hundred conversions to the truth where now there is only one” (Welfare Ministry 86).

One hundred people coming to Christ and experiencing the joy, peace, and security of His friendship—one hundred children, teens, young adults, and the not so young—where before there was just one! How come? Because people are that hungry to be loved. America has never been more needy and open to unselfish compassion than right now.

So I say let’s go—you and me—and be the Love on the Move Jesus needs us to be this New Year. A hundred to one—talking about sudden and unexpected—but then that’s Jesus for you—fully engaged with His friends in Love’s sudden, unexpected endgame harvest.