Pastor Jack Freed posted this quote in his Jack’s Winning Words blog today – “I’ve been down in the dumps…This really brightens my day.” (Liz Koto) His post was about the couple who started the walk funny phenomenon that has been reported on the news. That couple started walking funny, like on the old Monty Python show, on a whim, but discovered that it helped lighten up and brighten up some people’ days. Now many people all over the country are walking funny or dressing up in costumes for their walks. What can you do to brighten someone’s day?
We have all seen the ads on TV that recommend that you call someone rather than visit them. Calling them also helps brighten up their day, especially those who have been enduring this pandemic lock-down alone. What can you do to brighten someone’s day?
Many people have been putting signs in their windows or yards thanking the frontline workers in their area. Some even hold clapping sessions on their front porches or lawns to thank those who continue to serve us through this crisis. Doing something like that helps both the people who serve and the celebrators alike. What can you do to brighten someone’s day?
There have also been stories in the news about car caravans being organized to drive by the home of someone celebrating a birthday or other special event. Some were organized just to say “thank you” to someone for being there to serve others. What can you do to brighten someone’s day?
Even on Facebook, there are people who go out of their way to post funny pictures or cartoons to help lighten up what could otherwise be a grim time. People need those little breaks of humor every day to help them make it through this. What can you do to brighten someone’s day?
So think about what you can do. Who can you call? What funny thing can you do? What sign can you make up and maybe post a picture of on Facebook? Imagine how much better others will feel if you can somehow break the grip of loneliness or depression for them. Just imagining that will also help you feel better. What can you do to brighten someone’s day?
A good way to put yourself in the mood to do something is to go to your bathroom and look in the mirror; then make a funny face to yourself. Break out of your own serious mood and then set you mind to work on answering the question – What can you do to brighten someone’s day?
In his Jack’s Winning Words blog post today, Pastor Jack Freed used this quote –
“With God it isn’t who you were that matters, it’s who you are becoming.” (Liz Curtis Higgs)
Every day we have the opportunity to start the journey to becoming someone that we would like to be, rather than continue down the path that we’ve been on. Most don’t stop to think about that each morning, nor do many actually pause to make a plan to start in that new direction. For most, It is just easier to let momentum continue to carry us in the direction that we’ve been going. We accept the status quo as, “I am”; instead of reaching for, “I could be”.
The society that we live in doesn’t make that any easier for those whose past includes huge mistakes or even criminal behavior. Society tends to pin labels on those people and make it hard for them to become anything else. In some cases we use stereotypes, in most cases derogatory, to prejudge people or to “keep them in their place”.
But, what if you want to become something else and move to a different place. What if you want to become known as the person that you are becoming and not as the person that you were? We see the occasional story on the news of the ex-con who turned his/her life around in prison and became a new person and headed in a new direction. In many cases they become advocates for change in other people’s lives.
The stories seldom go deep enough to detail the struggles that they went through to make that change, but it wasn’t easy. Our prison system is not designed to reform and help the inmates make life changes into positive directions as much as it is just designed to serve as a deterrent by the example it sets of the punishment for wrongdoing. The few that emerge from the prison experience having made dramatic life turnarounds did it on their own against huge odds.
The key for many, if not most, of those stories was the inmate’s acceptance of God in their lives. The reason that is so critical is that the first step in making the change was to realize that God forgives them for their past. They can then move on to forgiving themselves and from there to committing to becoming a new person – the person that they want to be.
One does not have to be an incarcerated criminal to undergo this process and make the changes in their life that allow them to become a better person – a person who is happier with who they are. It is important, however, to seek God’s help as a first step. Accepting God into your life and accepting His forgiveness frees you to forgive yourself and move in a new direction – towards the person that you wish to become.
As you pause in prayer each morning, ask yourself what you will do today to become that person that you want to be and then ask for God’s help in accomplishing those things. It’s not an instant thing, but if you make it a consistent thing in your life you make some small amount of progress towards your goal each day.
Who are you becoming? What is your goal for today? Remember that God’s got your back.
From a recent post to the Jack’s Winning Words blog – “It’s our innate tendency to only act when we’re face to face with danger, rather than to try a preventive approach.” (From Voices of Youth)
The situation that we all face currently in the danger that the COVID-19 virus poses is not necessarily one for which there was much of a preventative approach, but it is one that we could have been better prepared for as a nation. The Stay at Home measures in place now are about as preventative as we can get at this time, and they are in place just to slow down the spread of the disease before it overwhelms our health care system.
The lack of leadership in Washington just exacerbated the fact that we were unprepared. The so-called National Stockpile of ventilators and Personal Protective Equipment was exhausted rapidly and even states that had emergency plans in place had grossly underestimated the scope and impact of even their worst case scenarios. For the most part the country rose to the occasion, with most state governors issuing executive orders to stay at home to reduce the spread of the virus.
Those who would act to reopen the economy before we have this pandemic under control and a vaccine in place pose the danger now. The pandemic of 1918 actually killed more people in its second wave in the U.S. than it did initially. You can Google that pandemic to read about it. It is the consensus opinion of our best medical professionals and scientists that we are not yet at the point where states can reopen for business, yet the governors of a few states have bowed to political pressure to restart the economies in their states, not matter what the cost in human lives. There is no way to even imagine businesses and people being disciplined enough to enforce the needed social distancing and personal Protective Equipment use to prevent a second wave from developing in those states.
The almost certain apology, “Gee, I guess I was wrong about that”, has already been used by the Mayor of New Orleans and will be of little comfort to those who lose family and friends because of this lack of the political will to do what is right. Even many of the business owners in those states say that they may not reopen just because the state governor says it is OK to do so. They have more sense than to put their employees at risk.
What can we do as individuals? For one we can show support for the courage that the leaders who put the Stay at Home orders in place, instead of engaging in noisy and dangerous public protests. Use safe means, such as emails, to let those governors no that you agree with their decision and continue to support it and them. Then, do your part by continuing to observe the orders, practicing safe social distancing, and wearing personal protection when you have to go out in public.
Two of the most truthful statements that I’ve heard on various news casts lately were “We just don’t know” and “We’re making it up as we go along”. Those were honest responses made by State-level bureaucrats in recent news show interviews in responses to questions about what happens next and how Federal financial aid programs were being implemented.
While one can get weary hearing terms and phrases like “unprecedented”, “extraordinary” and “never in my lifetime”; the fact it that the current situation is one that very few have been alive long enough to remember having experienced. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic was the last comparable event. So, honest confusion about what to do is understandable. We are all making this up as we go along.
Honest confusion about what to do next should not be compared with the overt stupidity being displayed by those who would ignore the threat and get everybody back to work immediately. Idiots running around in large crowds with “Liberate Michigan” signs represent only the lunatic fringe of society, so self-centered and unconcerned about others that they would put us all at risk.
The paper today had a story about the impact of the Stay Home order on the tourist industry in the northern part of the state, specifically in Mackinaw City. While the lack of tourist traffic will be a severe hardship for the businesses that depend on the million –plus visitors to Mackinaw Island each year, the business owners there ae more concerned about loosening the restrictions too soon and putting their communities at risk. Some were even quoted in interviews stating that they might not reopen their stores or restaurants if the Stay at Home order is lifted too quickly. They are rightfully concerned about travelers from other parts of the country bringing the virus with them.
Fear, anger and ignorance seem to be driving the push to reopen all businesses right away. Some of that is understandable even if not acceptable. The response at the Federal level has been pathetic and states were unprepared for something this big. Perhaps the states that have decided to open up starting next week will show us all whether that is a good idea.
We’ve already seen the impact that a stupid mayor in New Orleans had on spreading the disease and turning his city into a hot spot. Later he said. “Gee, I didn’t know that letting people gather in large crowds for Marti Gras would spread the disease.” Well, Duh! Maybe the Governors of the states that are rushing to reopen can dust off that lame excuse. It’s unfortunate that the states surrounding those states can’t close their borders and prevent travel from those states.
For most of us, honest confusion is almost inevitable. We are bombarded daily with conflicting views from politicians and government leaders about what has been done and what needs to be done. The messages from medical professionals has remained consistent, focused upon social distancing and personal hygiene. Their goal all along was to try to slow the spread enough to allow an unprepared health system to keep up. Others in that industry have been working to find effective treatments for the sick and to develop a vaccine for the future.
As much as those healthcare professionals appreciate the “clap outs” and supportive signs that they see, they are more concerned with the movement to open the economy back up too soon. They know that our healthcare industry cannot sustain the intense level that they have been operating at for the last month or so. A second wave outbreak of the virus, precipitated by getting people back to work and back to public gatherings too soon, will break the system and the people within it.
The question now becomes one of, “Who will we listen and follow?” Will elected leaders who have little real understanding of the situation and no scientifically defensible rationale for their decisions cave into the loud voices of the angry mobs demanding the right to get sick and to be allowed to sicken others? Will common sense prevail or will we all be exposed to the unmasked and loud, virus spreading shouts of the ignorant? Should the connector on their signs be changed from “Live Free or Die” to “Live Free and Die”? Let’s watch what happens in Georgia and see; before we make the same mistake in Michigan.
In the meantime – let’s all stay home, wear masks and gloves in public and wash our hands often. There’s little to be confused about in that.
OK, I get it. These are uncertain times. We’re all in this together. We’re here for you. Yada, yada, yada. I think most have gotten the message, even if some reject the need for the precautions that government leaders have imposed. So, what now?
Many seem to be sitting around hoping and waiting for things to return to the old “normal” that we had, before all of this happened. Guess what, Yolanda? It aint’t gonna happen. When the dust settles, things will be permanently different. We need to accept that and plan for our new lives in the new reality that we are living in.
There will be people who are no longer with us. There will be businesses that didn’t make it through the crisis. There will be new rules for how we live and work together. There will be a new appreciation of how fragile our lives really are and how precious the time is that we have. There will still be jerks; there will always be jerks running around with “Don’t tread on me” signs and refusing to do what is needed for the good of all.
The key now is to let go of those false hopes for a return to how things used to be and to focus upon making the best of things as they are and will be. We must learn from this experience and hopefully be better prepared for the next big things that happens to us. We have already learned that we were woefully prepared at all levels of government for this event; just as we learned from Hurricane Katerina how poorly prepared FEMA was for that type of event.
This event exposed the poor planning and preparedness at the Federal level (exacerbated by the total lack of understanding and leadership at the top) and the lack of any form of Federal/State coordination to deal with such events. That needs to change, beginning in November. There will be lots of campaign talk about being better prepared for the next major crisis. Try to find the few honest politicians who aren’t just blowing smoke and vote for them
At a personal level, each person needs to reflect on what they discovered about themselves, their lives and their relationships during this crisis.
Financial planners have been telling us forever that we need to have at least 6-8 month cushion of readily available cash to see us through temporary setbacks like this. That is to say, that you need 6 to 8 times what your normal bills would be in an “emergency fund” that you can readily access. That’s a lot and it won’t be easy to save that amount, but it should be your goal when you get back to work. That means a lot of sacrifice for a while, but keep in mind how exposed and helpless you felt during the current crisis and that might help you make those sacrifices for the future.
While I certainly don’t espouse that we all become “preppers”, stocking our bunkers in anticipation of a Zombie apocalypse, this experience did expose how ill prepared most are to ride out even a short crisis. We have become accustomed to being able to hop in the car and go get a roll of toilet paper or some eggs when we run out. We did not anticipate the hoarding and supply chain issues that this crisis exposed. Being better prepared may mean having a better-stocked pantry that can supply our needs for a week or more.
As for our relationships, I suspect that being quarantined in place with family was an eye opener for many, especially for husbands who now see what their wives go through every day with the kids. For a few that may have been the straw that broke an already shaky marriage. For many, I hope it was the event that changed the relationship from one of convenience to one of interdependency – from love in the Greek word Eros to that of Agape. . For couples, that may mean a completely new understanding of the words “us” and “we”.
And for our feelings about ourselves, this event likely forced more alone, “ME” time than any that has led up to it. Some probably came away disappointed or depressed with what they came face to face with in that alone time. Hopefully, most love themselves enough to have enjoyed a bit of time alone to think and reflect on life. With that base of loving yourself, you could also explore your love for others and perhaps make some life changes to better share and express that love.
A friend of mine is a financial planner who uses the tag line – “People don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan”. That was certainly true for most of us before this crisis. We can take actions coming out of this experience to make sure that it is not true when the next crisis hits. So, let go of the past and hopes for a return to something that is gone. Start planning for your future. That future starts now.
In a recent Corona Virus daily briefing President Trump said, in response to a question about how the decision would be made on re-opening the country, that he would depend upon science and intuition, adding – “a lot of intuition”. So our future is in the hands of a man who depends more on his “gut feel” about things and people than on any intelligent decision making process. Disappointing, but not surprising.
The decisions that must be made on relaxing the current measures to combat the virus really boil down to answering the question – How many lives are we willing to lose to keep the economy afloat. There is some number circulating in the back of POTUS’ mind of the acceptable collateral damage death toll that Americans will accept as the price for getting back to work.
In fact, Sweden was in the news recently for having made that very decision at the start of the outbreak in their county. The government leaders in Sweden acknowledged that their decision not to impose any stay at home or social distancing mandates would come at a price in deaths – a price that they deemed to be acceptable, in order to keep the economy of Sweden running. Not every Swede agrees with that decision, just like many disagree with the stay at home mandates here .
The few scientific minds that get snippets of TV time during stories about getting America back to work have consistently warned that it will be a complex problem to solve and that acting too quickly to relax social distancing restrictions will put America at risk for a second wave of infection from the virus. Little is currently known about the virus and whether or not some level of herd immunity can be achieved from those who survived infections in the first wave. Scientific progress is being made on multiple fronts – testing, treatments and developing a vaccine – but much work remains to be done, especially to ramp up to the levels needed to insure safety – especially testing and tracking. The most honest answers from the scientific world start with “We just don’t know”.
So, on the one hand, we have our best ab brightest scientific minds cautioning against going too fast to reopen the country, while they work as fast as they can to find solutions to slow the rate of infections and deaths. On the other hand, we have POTIUS going with his intuition and focusing upon reopening the country’s economy at some acceptable cost in lives. Upon which hook shall we hang the health and fate of the nation?
As I watch the posts in Facebook and elsewhere, I often see people who have been posting that this all B.S., a hoax and government overreach that it’s stealing their freedom. They quickly turn to posts of “Holy Crap, this stuff it real”, as soon as someone close to them gets it and dies. One can only assume that a number of the idiots who flaunt the rules on re-opened beaches and at large anti-government mandates rallies will soon become “Holy Crap” posters, if they live to post about it.
Now, more than ever, it is time to pray for God’s help. Pray for intelligence, patience and perseverance to prevail over frustration, stupidity and intuition.
I wrote back on March 20 (see What’s your plan?) that there are four stages that we all would be going through during this crisis. Stage 1 – Shock and Awe, Stage 2 – Fear and Anxiety, Stage 3 – Frustration and anger and, finally, Stage 4 – Acceptance and inventiveness.
We have been through stages 1 and 2 for the past few weeks in quarantine and many, if not most, have already entered stage 3, as witnessed by the protest rally at the state capitol yesterday. The frustration and anger are fueled by fear and have been exacerbated by a total lack of leadership at the national level. One is tempted, while watching the daily briefings from Washington, to cue up the music “Send in the Clowns”, but as the song itself says, “Don’t bother, they’re here.”
So here we are, into stage 3 – frustrated and angry. Frustrated that we don’t know who to be angry at and angry that everything that we want to do is frustrated by the situation at hand. For some, that frustration and anger results in stupidity – going to crowded protest rallies unprotected by masks or social distancing comes to mind or going to large church services. For others it has resulted in family friction that threatens to end marriages or cause depression. For many this feels like the same anger and frustration that as children used to cause us to hold our breath until we turned blue. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.
Stage 3 is the most dangerous stage to get through, since it is the stage that precipitates to most dangerous reactions. When anger takes over your life, reason is often pushed aside in favor of a response – a response that in many cases just makes the situation worse. In this stage, even God becomes a target for our anger – we ask, “How could God let this happen to us?” In fact, it is in this stage that we need God’s help the most. We need to pray for God’s help to let us quickly move on to Stage 4, where we start to take positive steps to deal with the changes needed in our lives. We might pray that God calm our frustrations and anger or end our self-pity party and give us the strength to accept our new reality and find ways move forward within that reality.
The focus at state leadership levels will soon turn to defining the rules that must govern or lives as we return to work. We will not be out of danger with this virus for months, but efforts to flatten the curve have worked to some extent to reduce the severity of the outbreak and prevent the wholesale overrunning of our health care system. We could soon be at an acceptable steady-state level of infections and deaths (if there is ever an acceptable level for deaths), that will allow us to slowly put people back to work. It will not be life as we knew it. Nothing will be as we knew it. Some will call it the “new normal”; many will just use the old hack – “It is what it is”. I call it Stage 4 of this crisis – the accepting and adapting (inventing) stage.
In this next phase we will need to understand how to conduct our lives and our businesses in a manner that doesn’t harm others by re-introducing the virus to them. The virus will still be there. It will always be there. We will not have a widespread vaccine or enough people with herd immunity for a year or more, so we must learn to live without killing each other. Social distancing rules and practices will dramatically affect how we live and how we conduct business.
It will be literally impossible for some businesses to operate profitably under social distancing rules. How can a restaurant, that may have been small to begin with, be expected to continue with half or less of the tables that it needs to be profitable? Yet that may be the new reality, if tables must be far enough apart to prevent the spread of the virus. How can small stores, in which 3-4 people constitutes a crowd, remain open under new occupancy and social distancing guidelines? How can large events like sporting events or street festivals that draw huge crowds be allowed or made safe? There are no good answers to these simple questions, yet, and we have not even thought of all of the questions at this point.
It is in this stage that our resourcefulness as a people and as a nation will be tested. It is also in this stage where a moral triage of sorts will take place. We will be making the conscious choice to accept a certain level of illnesses and deaths as the necessary price for the survival of our economy. While that has always been true in our society, it has seldom been as starkly apparent as it will be now. We have always chosen to let a certain segment of our society go without access to healthcare (and die) for economic reasons. It was convenient for us to ignore that segment, since they were usually the poor and homeless. This new choice puts our friends, co-workers and families equally at risk. The virus is not discriminatory in that regard.
Let’s move as quickly as we can into stage 4. It is a much more positive stage than the self-destructive environment of Stage 3. Our best scientists and medical professionals will continue to focus on finding treatments and vaccines. Now our best business minds must focus upon creative ways to get America safely back to work. It won’t be easy, but there is not a challenge that we can’t overcome, once we put our minds to the task.
As a business owner, the first task at hand in Phase 4 is making it possible for customers to shop or eat or get services in your business with a minimum risk of becoming infected, and still be profitable while doing so. That task is quickly followed by finding the best way to let your customers know that you are open again and have taken those steps to protect them. Just don’t be the bull-headed merchant who re-opens without regard to the guidelines and gets shuttered again by the authorities (and there will be those jerks).
Believe me there is plenty of pent-up demand for goods and services and food . It’s time to get to stage 4 and get ready to re-open. There is not a more creative group in our economy than the small business owners who make up the backbone of that economy. It’s time to get creative.
Pastor Jack Freed used this quote from the movie Shawshank Redemption in his blog today –
“Hope is a great thing, maybe the best of things. No good thing ever dies”
Hope never dies, but sometimes it eludes us. Perhaps it is because we are so consumed with fear or anxiety that we fail to look for it. Hope is like an onion with many layers. You may start with I hope things get better soon or perhaps I hope things get back to normal soon. There may be a layer that says, I hope they find a cure for this soon. Right below that hope maybe the layer that says, I hope I don’t get this virus. If you dig down deep enough, at the core for almost everyone is the hope – I hope I don’t die from this virus.
When one gets down to that level of the onion it is not unusual that one find that hope is joined by faith. Faith and hope together form the foundation for belief – belief in the message and promise of Easter that there is life after death.
As we wait out this pandemic, one can find guidance and reassurance in the Bible. The book of Romans has quite a few good references to hope –
Romans 5 – “we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope”
As we persevere through the current stay at home lockdown, imagine the character that we are building. Think of it as a long workout at the gym, but we are not building muscle; but, rather, we are building character. For most of us, this lockdown may be the longest amount of time that we’ve had by ourselves, maybe ever. For some it is building character that they did not know that they had in them and bringing out hope that may have been long forgotten.
Romans 8:24-25 “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Perhaps hope is the best thing. Hope based upon faith and belief is the strongest hope of all. We all need that kind of hope during this prolonged crisis.
Romans 15:13 – “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
Rather than writing anything today, I invite you to view the Easter Church Service for Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in West Bloomfield. During the COVID-19 Stay at Home period, our congregation has chosen to do the right thing and avoid holding services that might expose our congregation members to the risk of infection. I have been working with the pastor and church organist and choir director to create alternative services that we can deliver via video. I hope these videos help you get through these trying times.
Fair warning, there is a rather lengthy prelude to the actual service, so stick with it.
Taken right at dawn coming back from walking the dogs
Years ago I bought a large Star of Bethlehem to use at Christmas time. It is a commercial display piece that is about 4 feet tall and 2 ½ feet across and lights up, so it can be seen from quite a distance. I usually use it as part of the Christmas decorations on my home. Since it is large and positioned on the second floor of the house, I just leave it up year around, but usually only illuminate it during the Christmas season. Until now. I have set it to light up from dusk until dawn until this crisis is over.
The current COVID-19 crisis has put the entire nation on edge and the stay at home order in this state has exacerbated those feelings of fear, uncertainty and doubt. I just felt like it was time to turn the star on again, to give people who see it something to cling to and have faith in.
It is ironic that it is lit during the Holy Week of Easter, yet somehow very appropriate. Christmas and Easter represent the birth and resurrection of hope as well as of our Lord. Now is a time that we all need hope and it is my intention that those seeing the star lit will find some measure of comfort and renewed hope for better days ahead.
If you drive by my house at night and see the star, please don’t honk, just smile and perhaps look over at the loved ones who may be with you in the car and have hope and faith that things will get better.
Posted by Norm Werner 
NormsMilfordBlog 