Note: this was meant for the 4th...but with the windstorm this week, this is the first time I have been to connect to the internet
What a week! Monday I got stung by something...I think a wasp and today (tuesday) my elbow and all the skin around it is swollen up and down from bicep to forearm. Then we had a nice visitor to our area yesterday. His name is Isaias and he has a fiery temper. His winds tore through our town and took down a lot of trees in our neighborhood. Two in my front yard alone. 1 at our church and many more all around. But fortunately I haven’t heard of many injuries. Fingers crossed.
But it gets you thinking - is this the training for the apocalypse? Haha. Or no? Gulp. With Covid, economic woes, toilet paper shortages and now storms that shut down a coast trying to adjust to “how to respond in the middle of a pandemic” and no electricity to provide shut ins and home office employees with the bandwidth they need to “survive”. It’s really interesting to see how this can almost feel like a precursor or trial run to something bigger. Ok. But let’s keep those thoughts to the side and think through how changes in today’s environment can impact us...
Home office shut down. Lots of people working from home unable to work - everyone now hits cell networks and bandwidth is limited. So communicating is s bit more difficult when texts and emails aren’t going through. Electric company has crews out, but how are they functioning if perhaps there’s a lot of people delinquent on monthly payments. So what happens in emergency situations like this if electric companies need to downsize?
How about medical? Do responders know whose Covid positive? Are people who are asymptomatic alongside others in shelters? How good are those tests? What about in an emergency? Transfer someone to a Covid holding center instead of the other facility that could provide more immediate treatment?
Those who know me, know I really don’t think this way. I feel we did what we could in the beginning to slow the spread but the more we try to control something, the more moving parts we put in motion that have to be adjusted for. At some point it all has to get back to normal. You minimize risk, but this disease isn’t smallpox (at least not that we know of...in 10 years maybe we’ll have another view). The more things we try to do to control a situation, the more things that start to appear as side effects (I.e., increases in depression, suicide, anxiety, divisiveness, etc.).
As some things go wrong in my life, I truly take comfort knowing that it’s all part of God’s plan. We aren’t in control but we can be comforted knowing He is in control. Sometimes we just don’t “know” what the plan is and that is ok. So if it is the apocalypse, so be it...it’s all part of the plan anyway ;).
I read through the book of Job and I can get a little humbler...control what i can and let go of other things (or at least try)...the wasp did its thing when I entered his space, and the earth shakes under a storms strong winds. Power is out, communications are down, but we’re still here...we just need to figure out the purpose and meaning in it all. This always gets revealed if we have patience and open ourselves up to see it.
So if you’re feeling a little anxious, upset or scared, I can only say that finding religion has had a big impact on my life in reducing stress and anxiety and it might be something that could work for you. If you ever need an ear to listen to something feel free to contact us at Generation Bridge-Brian.sherwood@generation-bridge.com.
note- in the time since I wrote this I was impressed to see people camping outside my towns library to take advantage of their WiFi - even putting up tents and such to protect from rain. It’s been tough to stay abreast of things with even cellular data down and spotty connectivity for phones or text messages. So many trees down - thankfully there are many people out there doing their best to get things up and running safely.
