Update 11/21/2020: Before you begin reading, this was written three months into the Covid19 global pandemic and is being posted 8 months into the covid19 pandemic. Take it as you will, not much has changed.
Today is a Friday. Friday, June 12, 2020 to be exact. Will this be posted today? Who knows but today is the day I am taking a moment to write. I have written one post since this whole COVID-19 pandemic thing has occurred. Talk about a surreal moment in time and living history at that. For all of you out there that like to use real life to teach the next generation, I sure hope you are taking note of all that is going on in the world around us and how we are being able to not only read or hear about history in the making but we are living it. Day in and day out. I am not so sure that our kids will be going back to school “in the deficit” when it comes to history.
Have you seen those birthday cards that say “if you were born in ______ year” then this is what was going on and this is how much stuff costs? This season of pandemic has made me think of those cards more and more. I often wonder what will the year 2020 card look like? What will the going price of gasoline be? How much will a gallon of milk be listed as? Other than pandemic stuff, what else will be listed as major life historical events that occur during the year 2020? It really blows my mind beyond compare.
Before moving to Virginia, I had the privilege of teaching a dental assisting class to high school seniors at a local career and technical education center. It was a short lived part of my career that I will cherish dearly!!! Seriously, total greatness. Why I mention this is that the last group of students that I had in class graduated from high school this week. That means that half of their senior year was cut short. For some, it was WAHOO we don’t have to wake up early and go to school. For others, and most of them, it was a super sad point in their high school career. I mean, can you think of your senior year? Second semester was by far the pinnacle of what high school was about. Senior prom, senior skip day (yes it exists and yes even those God fearing seniors do it, it’s like a rite of passage), spring break, these are just a few of the things.
I want to think back beyond March 12, 2020, when the schools here in Virginia were put on “shelter in” orders. Let’s think back seventeen to eighteen years ago. What year do we arrive at? 2001 to 2002? What major life event occurred late 2001? 9/11/2001. When were these high school seniors born? Are you following me? Back to my time with my seniors.
I had the opportunity to walk through remembering 9/11 with them. We discussed what happened. We looked at videos. They were curious as to what I was doing and where I was? If I knew of anyone specific had been affected. . . you see, I had one maybe two of my students who were just days old. The rest were in the womb. Can you believe it? The generation of students who entered the world during turmoil are leaving their primary/high school educational career during a world wide pandemic. Do you think this is by coincidence? I sure don’t. I believe that the God of the universe doesn’t make mistakes and he sure didn’t by the timing of all of this. I am not saying He caused it because he didn’t but He has allowed it all. Why? I have no clue and frankly I may never know, not until I reach those pearly gates of glory when my mission on Earth is done. But I do believe that in His amazingly beautiful ways and His loving kindness and grace, He allowed this generation of young adults to enter the world during such a season and end a major season of their life during such a season.
As I have been communicating with my now former students during all of this, I have been placing the challenge in front of them. What if it really is your generation that is called to be the world changers that our world so desperately needs? What if you are the ones that are called to flip the script and lead the way on how the rest of “the world” around you responds to pandemic? Or heck, how they respond to life! Some of those young men and women really processed through the challenge and have been making it their goal to be the world changers that, I believe, we are all called to be in some capacity or another. The challenge stands with you. . . are you being a part of the process in helping to change the world for good or are you being a part of the problem and giving into the media and all the negativity around you? It’s a choice. A daily choice.
On top of the “shelter in” pandemic quarantine, our world continues to struggle with the lack of racial reconciliation. IT BREAKS MY HEART!!!! Why can’t we just treat people equally and get along? What has been going on is wrong! Yep you heard me correctly, people of color loosing their lives because of the color of their skin is wrong! No matter how you try and slice it or dice it, WRONG! I don’t care who did what or what did who, or started what and what nots. WE ARE ALL CREATED EQUAL IN THE IMAGINE OF GOD. Last time I checked and read my Bible, God created Adam and from Adam He created Eve. . . . and one by one the rest of the generations of people were created, offspring from offspring. So if you want to get into the whole genealogy thing, guess what? WE WERE ALL CREATED FROM ADAM AND EVE!!!!! Let’s stop killing and fighting with people, people some way or another we are connected to! I stand for JUSTICE AND MERCY! I stand for truth!
The short and sweet on why “stuff” happens is because although we were created equal by the same God of the universe and are all some how genealogically related in the family tree, we also are human and all of us have free will and sin natures. Those very two first humans that God created (Adam & Eve) made a big old mistake that set this world into motion that we live in. Eve gave Adam a piece of forbidden fruit, thus sin entered into the world. Why? Well, it opened their eyes to see that they were not God and brought about the realization that we need God. We need a Savior and that without Him we are nothing. Left to our own ways we would continue to allow Satan to kill, steal, and destroy us. . . one by one! The only hero in the story is GOD! What will be written from Christian theologians that are post-trib perspective be and on the flip what will pre-trib Christian theologians write? I hesitate to even write these thoughts out as I am afraid it will create a point of contention causing an uproar of angsts because well COVID-19 quarantine and the lack of social interactions and lets be real most people are looking for something to get all huffy about.
But I write because I am called to write and say the things that most of us think between the inner linings of our left and right eustachian tubes but wouldn’t DARE speak it out loud for fear we may just have to have a real conversation about it. So, this is it. All of it, for me. I personally have no desire to know what side of the fence you stand on politically, socially, emotionally, etc. you get the point, if you first and foremost point of concern is not JESUS and how someone is doing in their walk with the Lord. Heck, if we allow any of the things that have occurred during 2020 to take precident over our concern with whether a person knows how much they are loved by The Savior of the world, it is absolutely wrong!
So. . . here’s my challenge. What is that you are taking away as absolutely and utterly the most important things in life? What have you found out about yourself that you would say “defines you?” Are you seen as a person who loves Jesus (not just professes Jesus as Lord, but LOvES Jesus) or are you that person that people generally tend to slowly distance themselves from? Answer out loud if you like, but I implore you to do the hard introspective work and allow the Lord to help you determine what the rest of 2020 and 2021 will look like despite the cultural context around us.