Beyond the Porch Swing

Days of Change

A roar sounds as the wind pushes itself through the trees.  I start tensing. I expect to feel a blast of cold air, but it doesn’t come. I guess from today’s wind, I’m sheltered.

Hi friends!  

If you’re like me, the Coronavirus feels like that wind. I can hear it, I can see its effect, but I don’t feel it, yet.

The little word “yet” trips me up.

I read a report, a very long one, by someone who must struggle with positive thinking. I couldn’t finish reading it as I could feel anxiety build in me.  What if someone I love gets Covid19 ? What if they don’t live through it? What if I get it? What if all we know as normal ends up being abnormal from now on?

My “what if’s” list goes on and on.  I tense up waiting for a blast to hit me, but for today I’m sheltered and it doesn’t come. I’m fortunate for this.  But tomorrow the wind may blow from a different direction.

How can we deal with the fear of uncertainty?

What am I doing? What emotions are playing inside you? 

Based on how you’re feeling and acting, ask yourself these questions:

-Who am I?

-What is God doing?

-Who is God?

When anxiety pumps through my veins, my response to these questions are ugly. Answers like everything is up to me, God isn’t doing anything, God is out of control, He’s mean, untrustworthy and weak, surface.  I begin to see that I’m trusting more in antiseptic wipes and my obedience to social distancing than in God.

Why such ugly answers?  Because I’m basing my life and my security on me and how I’m feeling.

Let's reverse that list of questions. What happens when I ask them based on God and what He says about Himself?  

-Who is God?

-What is God doing and has done to prove He is who He says He is?

-Who am I?

-What am I doing?

This perspective changes everything!  Truth about God’s character gives hope.  God proved His love by sending Jesus to die for us. He proved His power with Jesus’s resurrection. He proves His presence by giving His Holy Spirit which enables us to see many good things around us if we let Him.

The wind may blow from a different direction tomorrow.  I hope not. But when we focus on God and not ourselves , we’re given boldness to face uncertainty and fear.  Power is then removed from Covid19 and placed on the only One who can handle it, God.

I quess the next question I need to ask myself is, am I willing to trust God?