It’s been a month since Governor Hogan shut down the public schools and asked all of us to stay at home as much as possible. It’s also the time after Easter. Even though this was not a normal Easter for any of us, it was still something we looked forward to with anticipation.
As we continue to live through this challenging time, hope and connection become more and more important to all of us. We don’t know how long our lives will be disrupted, how many might become sick, or how all this will end. We do have to find ways to be patient and sufficiently confident to get through each day.
We can do various things that might encourage others and help us feel we are doing something useful. I have two things in mind:
- Take a few moments each day to offer a prayer for yourself and for others. A big part of prayer is just being open to God and sharing what is on our heart, whatever that may be. God can certainly take in our fears, our frustrations, our anger, our loneliness and our longing and whatever else we are feeling in this time.
- We can make a phone call or write a note to others. Reach out to those in your family and your neighbors. I encourage you also to reach out to others in the church. Here’s a suggestion: Find your name in the recent church directory and then find the next two people that follow after you. Give those persons a call to say hello. If you don’t already know them, you can introduce yourself. You might offer to lift that person up in prayer either on the phone or on your own over the next few days.
If you don’t have the most recent directory, let me know and I will send you one. If you run into telephone numbers that don’t work, skip on to the next person on the list. If you find you own directory listing is wrong or incomplete, please let me know.
We don’t get to choose the times we live in, but we can choose what we do with the time we are given.
Be well and God bless,
Steve Larsen
A Prayer during the Coronavirus Pandemic
Most merciful God,
we come to you in our weakness,
we come to you in our fear.
We turn to you in our time of need.
Bring strength and protection to doctors and nurses who care for those in need.
Give understanding to scientists who work to find a vaccine and treatments.
Provide caregivers with compassion and generosity.
Bring healing to those who are ill.
Keep those who are most at risk safe.
Give comfort to those who have lost a loved one.
Welcome those who have died into your eternal home.
Stabilize our communities.
Unite us in our compassion.
Remove all fear from our hearts.
Fill us with confidence that you are with us in this time of need.
And bring us hope for our days.
Jesus, we trust in you.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.