“Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
    for my hope is in him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress where I will not be shaken.
My victory and honor come from God alone.
    He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
O my people, trust in him at all times.
    Pour out your heart to him,
    for God is our refuge” (Psalm 62:5-8, NLT).

This is not a post about how a psychic that enjoys telling jokes is a happy medium. Haha.

It’s more about the current situation with the coronavirus.

One one hand, you have people that want to keep everything shut down indefinitely so that everyone will be safe. On the other, you have those who want to completely open up the economy so that businesses won’t all close and everyone will still have jobs and a paycheck.

I don’t think it has to be an extreme either/or. I feel like we can find a happy medium that allows for safety as well as economic security. You and I can only control our responses and how we feel is the right way to live in the middle of a pandemic, not everyone else’s.

When it comes to politics, I’ve noticed that we again like to gravitate toward extremes. The tendency is toward extreme left or right, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican.

In this culture, there is no room for debate. Anyone who disagrees with your beliefs or voices an opinion contrary to your is now automatically not only wrong, but stupid and evil. They are immediately what is wrong with America. If this is you, then you have become an idolater, putting politics in place of God Almighty.

Again, there’s a happy medium. There’s a place where we can share ideas without fear of personal attacks and name-calling. There’s a forum where we can learn to see value even in the thoughts and ideas of thoes with whom we disagree.

Maybe even there’s a chance we could stop drinking the red or blue koolaid and actually vote for people rather than parties. You know there’s more than two political parties out there, right?

St. Francis once prayed, “Help me not so much seek to be understood as to understand.”

When you understand what Jesus said about actually loving your enemies and praying for your persecutors, everything changes. When you know that the Truth is ultimately not exclusive to the left or the right but in fact exists in the person of Jesus, you seek to argue less and love more.

You begin to see that there are more viewpoints than your own. You realize that wisdom comes from learning how to speak the truth in love and hold your convictions with humility.

May we focus more and more on living truth, celebrating beauty, and having servant hearts in these uncertain days.

Yes, it is Intergalactic Star Wars Day. Which in the middle of pandemics and quarantines means absolutely nothing. Well, not quite.

It means you can if you choose watch all nine of the Star Wars movies (plus the two extra stand-alones). You can dress up as Han Solo or Princess Leia (or Chewbacca if you really have let your go during all this social distancing). You can quote the movies to your heart’s content.

Maybe we need something that will take us to a galaxy far, far away from reality. Maybe we need a little escape periodically to a world with droids and stormstroopers and rebels and that all-pervasive force.

It’s hard now to believe that there was a time before Star Wars. There are those who can remember (better than me) seeing the very first Star Wars movie at the theater way back in 1977.

The next generation probably remembers the joy of hearing about the next trilogy of movies in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The actual prequels might not have lived up to the hype, but they were real.

Now the story has a conclusion. What started out in 1977 came to a fitting end in 2019. All that remains is for new generations to discover the magic and wonder that is Star Wars.

May the 4th be with you indeed.

“If you learn to trust Me—really trust Me—with your whole being, then nothing can separate you from My Peace. Everything you endure can be put to good use by allowing it to train you in trusting Me. This is how you foil the works of evil, growing in grace through the very adversity that was meant to harm you.” -Dear Jesus by Sarah Young, p. 54

“But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20, NKJV).

Adversity can make you bitter or better. The key difference is trust. When you live without trust, you become more cynical. When you live with trust, you become more charitable.

For me, the goal isn’t to exist in place until the quarantine ends, but to grow in place so that a different me can meet the challenges of a new normal governed by the God who is still the same yesterday, today, and forever.

It could be that God orchestrated the events and people in your life in such a way that you’re seeing COVID-19 with a different set of eyes. Maybe you’re equipped to handle the current new normal because of past experiences.

Or maybe this era of pandemic is teaching you and preparing you for a future that only God can see.

Either way you can trust your present and future to the God who sees and knows both.

I can attest that the absolute best way to cope with the grief over a lost pet is to rescue another.

I’ve heard it said that grief is just love with no place to go. When the pet that you loved so much crosses the rainbow bridge, the best place for all that love to go is to a previously unloved dog or cat (or gerbil or hamster or hedgehog or whatever else).

My story is that I went into the animal shelter looking to find a Lucy Jr, but got picked by an unexpected (and polar opposite in many ways) tortie feline.

All I can say is that you will know when you find the right one. More often than not, he or she will be the one to pick you, not the other way around.

Even if you haven’t recently lost a pet, it’s still a good thing to rescue an animal. There’s no more loving and loyal pet than a rescue.

I can’t believe that tomorrow is May 1.

That means that we’re already 1/3 of the way through 2020.

Those living in Nashville might also know that tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary since those 1000 year floods that swept through the city following the historically heavy and non-stop rainfalls we had for 2 days straight.

I did have me some tacos today. At an actual restaurant.

Finally, there’s a light at the end of the self-quarantine tunnel.

First of all, I actually like oatmeal raisin cookies. Especially those fresh out of the oven.

But what gets me is when I go take a bite out of what I honestly and sincerely believe to be a chocolate chip cookie, and there are raisins.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.

It does kind of feel like 2020 has been somewhat of a bait and switch oatmeal raisin for chocolate chip cookie kind of year, don’t you?

At least maybe things are starting to become less surreal and a bit more normal. So far.

That’s the promise. One day you will understand.

The disciples didn’t at first, so they ran and hid. Later, they got it and after that, they were willing to lay down their lives for their Lord.

That part of your life that you don’t understand? One day you will.

One day you will look back at how your life unfolded and confess that God could not have orchestrated it any better.

One day you will see how God took even the worst and darkest moments and turned them into the brightest golden moments.

One day you will understand.

I was listening to a podcast recently when one of the hosts said something that resonated with me. He was speaking about the whole COVID-19 ordeal and he talked about how some have reduced it to blaming it on people they already didn’t like in the first place.

I’m not here to take sides politically. Taking sides and passing blame do nothing to help those who are sick and dying. Name-calling does nothing to boost the morale of a general public who is trying to navigate through fearful and uncertain waters.

Look for the helpers. Look for those who are making a difference. I see health care workers risking their own lives for others. I see delivery workers taking great risks to make sure we have what we need. I see those who are practicing the art of doing those daily little things with great love.

Focus on the positive. Choose to use your words to build others up, not to tear down. Dare to be kind and praise the kindness in others.

Look for the helpers.