In the previous issue I wrote about the need to approach the pandemic as if it’s a marathon not a sprint. If you haven’t read it yet, go ahead and do so and then pick back up here.
So how do we pace ourselves? Here are some suggestions.
Embrace the circumstances in which God has providentially placed you. It’s easy to begin dwelling on the way things used to be. Many of the things we depended on for stability and a sense of normalcy have disappeared. It’s not wrong to lament what we’ve lost. But I find that, if I’m not careful, thinking about life before COVID-19 can tempt me to become angry, frustrated, or discontent.
I’ve been thinking about God’s instructions to the Jewish exiles in Babylon. I’m sure they spent time thinking about all that had been lost—the Promised Land, the Temple, the Davidic monarchy, their freedom. Here’s what the LORD says to them through the prophet Jeremiah:
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (Jer 29:4–7).
What does he tell the exiles? Basically, “Realize that I’ve put you here. Put down roots. Don’t wait for things to go back to the way they were. Learn to live in the circumstances in which I’ve placed you.”
As Christians we believe God providentially orders all things, including our individual lives. He, in his infinite wisdom, has ordained that we live through a global pandemic that’s upended life as we knew it. It would be foolish of us to kick and scream like a toddler throwing a tantrum. God knows what he’s doing. Our responsibility isn’t to figure it all out but to trust him and ask for the grace that meets us in our weakness with the strength of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 12:8–10).
I’ve lost track of how many times in the past five months I’ve read and quoted the following question and answer from the Heidelberg Catechism. It’s been such a help to me as I learn to live in light of God’s providence.
Q. How does the knowledge of God’s creation and providence help us?
A. We can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature will separate us from his love. For all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.
Reestablish healthy routines. I like routines. My personal philosophy is: routine is the spice of life. Routines reduce the number of decisions I need to make each day. Routines keep me from simply reacting to whatever’s going on. They help me focus on what’s important.
Stay-at-home orders upended many of my daily and weekly routines. It was OK for a few weeks, but at some point I realized I needed a bit of order back in my life. The lockdown gave me an opportunity to revamp my morning routine. Honestly, I think it’s been one of a handful of things keeping me sane. Nothing fancy. Hot coffee, Bible reading, prayer, other reading. If it’s not too hot outside, I take a brief walk around the neighborhood. This simple routine sets me up well for the rest of the day.
Evening routines, pre-bed routines, Saturday routines can all help inject a sense of order and rhythm back into your life, especially if you feel like you’ve just been trying to tread water the past five months.
Routines can be difficult to develop and stick with. I’ve found James Clear’s book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones to be a practical, common-sense approach to building (and breaking) habits and routines.
Consume less news and social media. Most of what’s covered in the daily news cycle is relatively unimportant. Cable news, in particular, dwells on the trivial. Moreover, cable news is much too dramatic. The programming is designed to induce fear and anger in viewers. Much of the messaging has a the-sky-is-falling quality.
I’ve begun focusing on more long-form journalism and essays and weekly or monthly publications. I find the content to be more thoughtful, well-researched, and informative than the entertainment-esque material produced by CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc.
Social media can be a great way to connect with friends. But, depending on the platform, it can really damage your mental health. Knee-jerk reactions. Slander. Gossip. Hate. Conspiracy theories. Non-stop complaining about anything and everything.
Consider taking a break for a day or two, maybe a week. Delete the apps from your phone. At the end of the break evaluate whether keeping up with the latest on your social media platform of choice is as important as you once thought. You might decide to extend your social media Sabbath, give up social media altogether, or reengage in a healthier way.
Sleep. I probably don’t need to remind you about the dangerous consequences of reduced sleep: weight gain, depression, heart disease, inability to focus, and too many more to list. If you feel frazzled, lethargic, unproductive, or purposeless these days, evaluate whether you getting a sufficient amount of sleep each night.
David Murray considers the theological component of sleep in his book Reset. Here’s an extended excerpt:
Few things are as theological as sleep. Show me your sleep pattern and I’ll show you your theology, because we all preach a sermon in and by our sleep. For example, if we pride ourselves on sleeping only five hours a night, we preach the following truths:
I don’t trust God with my work, my church, or my family. Sure, I believe God is sovereign, but he needs all the help I can give him. If I don’t do the work, who will? Although Christ has promised to build his church, who’s doing the night shift?
I don’t respect how my Creator has made me. I am strong enough to cope without God’s gift of sufficient daily sleep (Ps. 3:5; 4:8). I refuse to accept my creaturely limitations and bodily needs (Ps. 127:1–2). I see myself more as a machine than a human being.
I don’t believe that the soul and body are linked. I can neglect my body and my soul will not suffer. I can weaken my body and not weaken my mind, conscience, and will.
I don’t need to demonstrate my rest in Christ. Although the Bible repeatedly portrays salvation as rest, I’ll let others do the resting. I want people to know how busy, important, and zealous I am. That’s far more important than the daily demonstration of Christ’s salvation in when and how I rest.
I worship idols. What I do instead of sleep shines a spotlight on my idols, whether it be late-night football, surfing the Internet, ministry success, or promotion. Why sleep when it does nothing to burnish my reputation or advance my glory?
What sermon are you preaching in your sleep?
Do yourself a favor and get enough rest each night.
Rejuvenate. Do things that give you life, things that refresh you, things that restore your joy and give you energy. Get outside. Enjoy God’s creation. Garden. Take up painting. Play boardgames with your family. Build something with your hands. Exercise. Read a book. Read poetry. Watch a movie. Laugh.
You can only sprint for so long. Remember, this is a marathon.
George Cave does a deep dive on The UX of LEGO Interface Panels. So cool.
Ed Yong is a staff writer at The Atlantic, covering science. He wrote two excellent articles recently on the pandemic. In Immunology Is Where Intuition Goes to Die, he describes how the immune system works using vivid metaphors and explains why it’s difficult to understand how the immune system responds to the coronavirus. Here’s Yong explaining the role of lymph nodes.
Picture the lymph nodes as bars full of grizzled T-cell mercenaries, each of which has just one type of target they’re prepared to fight. The messenger cell bursts in with a grainy photo, showing it to each mercenary in turn, asking: Is this your guy? When a match is found, the relevant merc arms up and clones itself into an entire battalion, which marches off to the airways.
In How the Pandemic Defeated America, Yong writes about the United States’s botched response to the virus. Here’s the opening paragraph.
How did it come to this? A virus a thousand times smaller than a dust mote has humbled and humiliated the planet’s most powerful nation. America has failed to protect its people, leaving them with illness and financial ruin. It has lost its status as a global leader. It has careened between inaction and ineptitude. The breadth and magnitude of its errors are difficult, in the moment, to truly fathom.
Anyone want to read and review for me The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters by Tom Nichols? When it comes to Covid-19, this has to be one of the reasons so many Americans put more trust in talk radio personalities and random videos on social media than experts in the fields of infectious disease and public health. We’ve got Wikipedia and Facebook. We’re all experts now, right?
Back in July, Miroslav Volf, a theologian and professor at Yale, interviewed Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry on the Faith for the Life of the World podcast (produced by the Yale Center for Faith & Culture). Whitehead and Perry are the authors of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States.
Here’s the episode summary:
For our Fourth of July episode, Miroslav Volf interviews Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry, sociologists and authors of Taking America Back For God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. What is Christian Nationalism? Why does it matter? How powerful is it in American life? Who counts as a Christian Nationalist? They discuss the tendency of Christian Nationalism to use Christianity as a tribal identity marker or tool for power, rather than an authentic sign of faith or commitment to a the way of Jesus or the practice of his teaching. They discuss Christian Nationalism in racial perspective, comparing African-American and white conservative approaches to Christianity and the Nation. And the conversation draws out important implications for the meaning of the separation of church and state, and the viability of a robust public faith in American life.
A previously unreleased segment of Volf’s interview with Whitehead and Perry was made available last week. It’s titled Violence, Fascism, and Christian Nationalism.
The current presidential administration has linked federal violence against largely peaceful protests in the name of law, order, and defending God. E.g., deploying tear gas for a Bible-holding photo opp. Does the melding of Christianity with the Nation produce violence and war? What’s the relation between Christian Nationalism and fascism? Miroslav Volf asks sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry.
Does Christian Nationalism explain white Evangelical leaders’s fawning adoration of President Trump? After reading Michael Gerson’s article in the April 2018 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, I’m beginning to think so.
I’ve been admiring these three paintings by 19th-century Dutch artists.
Preachers are typically emotional basket cases the day after delivering a sermon. Ruminating on verbal slip-ups, questioning their decision to focus on this instead of that, wondering whether anyone was paying attention, etc.
A friend who knows this phenomenon well shared this video in the hope of encouraging me.
(If the video doesn’t show up in your email, you can watch it here.)
The hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king could ever be known.
— from The Return of the King
Sounds like a King I know.
And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
— Mark 1:40–42