Perspective

Among the hard things that have fallen out of this pandemical sheltering-in-place is the loss of ability to confidently and definitively plan into the future. So many spaces in our calendars are now neither full nor empty, just scratched with cancellations, and there are no future appointments down the weeks to replace them. A trip to see family? A dentist appointment? Annual check-up? Weekly coffee with a friend? Even a “safe” trip to Costco? We feel stuck. Since we are used to planning for events, appointments, and possibilities, we feel stuck many days!

It might help to get some perspective by reflecting on how many people over the course of history and even in the present day are proscribed in their planning. Who could plan if they are incarcerated or under house arrest or in hiding? Who could plan when they set out, not knowing where they were going or who was taking them? Who can plan if their city is being bombed and occupied by hostile forces days after day? We have enjoyed lives that have afforded us so much latitude, so many choices. And we still have many of them- it’s just that the circumference of our choices has narrowed, and some days we chafe under the restrictions.

Perspective can help us be grateful for the relative backdrop of safety and freedom we live with, even as we daily navigate the unpredictability of the pandemic.

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation