My COVID-19 Experience

I wanted to take a moment to talk about the COVID-19 (coronavirus) in a  personal way.  I do not intend this article to be political or prejudiced toward one worldview or another, but it will be biased.  Biased, because this is my story.  Toward the beginning of November, I woke up one day with body aches and a headache.  Since my wife and I have three children in public school, I assumed it was only a matter of time until the virus found it's way into our home.  It's no one's fault really, in fact I could have picked it up anywhere.  This is just what happens when groups of people get together sometimes … illnesses spread.  As the days progressed, I began to get a stuffy nose and sore throat.  Next came the low grade fever.  By this time I had made myself an appointment at the doctor's office so I could get tested for the dreaded "C" word virus.  Thirty minutes after a nasal rapid test swab, my results showed that I was positive for COVID-19.  So here it was, the 'famous' illness from television and radio was now hitting close to home.  

It's important to note here that my symptoms were mild the entire time.  This held true for the rest of my family as well.  We had people praying for us the whole time from church; that never hurts.  Even though the illness was nothing like we see in the national news headlines for us, I know that it could have been worse.  Much worse.  In fact, one of my friends describes it as Russian roulette - you never know if you will be one of the twenty percent that has severe symptoms until you actually get infected.  Even then, you can feel fine the first few days, and then begin to succumb to breathing problems and secondary infections later.  My doctor's words rang in my head as I drove home after the test that day, "you could start to feel worse as time goes on."  After all, I was only on day four of the symptoms at that point.  Trust me, I didn't want to start feeling worse.  

By grace of God, I only got better as time went on.  I found the same to be true for the rest of my family as well.  Did I mention people were praying for us?  For those who are interested, my daily ration of anti-viral Elderberry syrup, Zinc, and Vitamin D seemed to help also.  All of these things are over-the-counter items you can get without a doctor's prescription.  Early in the pandemic, data suggested that these things might work … I cannot deny that they could very well have helped me. 

 

After testing positive, the quarantine began.  It's ten days from first symptom onset, or fourteen days if you don't have symptoms.  One of the things that makes this virus so effective regarding transmission is the long incubation period.  Some people don't develop symptoms until the fourteenth day!  

I am a survivor I guess; I am still here.  Things went well, and now they tell me I have a certain level of immunity for a while.  I believe that your COVID game plan should be designed to handle the following three things: infection, contact tracing, and the 'panic factor.'  I will explain each of these three facets below.

After symptom onset and testing, my body had already begun fighting the microbial intruder.  I knew that I needed to take time to heal, sleep, and begin my regimen of anti-viral supplements.  This stage is different depending on your age and pre-existing conditions of course, but I think it also depends on the overall efficacy of your natural immune system.  Are you a smoker?  Do you exercise regularly?  All of these things will play a role in the ability to fight off the coronavirus.  I am not a doctor, this is just what I have gleaned from reading articles and asking questions from medical personnel.  

The second stage I experienced was the contact tracing.  This began almost immediately for me, because I am part of a church, as well as a fitness instructor.  I began making phone calls and sending emails the evening after receiving my positive test results.  Further emails and phone calls took place as a result of the first wave of notifications, and it wasn't all said and done for probably close to a week (follow up questions and talking to public health services).  My quarantine time had to be considered in light of my three kids and my wife.  This took a few calls to the school and public health to straighten out.  There is still a lot of confusion and misinformation out there.  Finally, some dates were set for us to return to the realm of the living.  I have been "contagion free" for quite a while at this point.  I was lucky because I felt well enough to begin making phone calls right away; not everyone will be in the same boat.  A good many people may move from the doctor's office directly to the bed.  Have a plan in place in case you need help.

Finally, I want to discuss what I have termed the 'panic factor.'  This has to do with the stigma of the virus during (and immediately after) it becomes public knowledge that you are infected.  This occurs as a result of the contact tracing, and after you tell friends or family.  I often felt as though I had a scarlet letter sewed onto my shirt.  Some people will be okay throughout the whole process, and they will respect that once quarantine is over, you are okay to go out in public again.  Others will struggle being around you no matter how many weeks it has been since you contracted the "C" word.  Some may be strangely angry to hear that you didn't end up in a hospital bed (because that matches with what they see and hear from different media sources or acquaintances).  Still others may think the whole thing is a hoax, and wonder if you ever really had it in the first place.  Be ready for any or all of this.  Show grace when necessary, and remember - it isn't somehow 'your fault' if you get sick.  

Fear drives some people to do the contact tracing for you as well, whether you want them to or not.  They may start asking you questions about where you have been and for how long.  Whether or not you attended such and such function while you had a stuffy nose, etc.  Try not to take offense at this, they are simply struggling to protect themselves in light of a lack of national leadership and consistency regarding the pandemic.  Some states try to control it one way, other states employ different strategies.  The end result is that it feels as though we are often on our own.  So, people do what they can to feel safe.

If you are lucky enough to have only mild symptoms, please remember not to assume that it will be the same for everyone else.  This is something that people in general struggle with I think.  We often assume that things will go well for others if it went well for us.  This is not the case with COVID-19.  I have also noticed that a good many people will go into a kind of denial if they begin experiencing symptoms.  "I know I have a sore throat, but it's probably just a cold," you might hear them say.  Maybe, but we are in this together when it comes to community spread.  If you have symptoms, please stay home or get tested.  There is an excellent chance that it could be COVID-19.  

Finally, treat each other with kindness.  Love each other.  Empathize with people's fear if they are struggling.  I don't believe we need to walk in fear per say, but this doesn't mean we shrug it off like some kind of invalid emotion.  It is a scary time we are living through.  It's okay to feel how you feel.  When all the pretenses fall away, and there is literally nowhere else to turn, not everyone will find God.  Many will stay in this mode of fear, and it isn't a pleasant place to be - so be gracious and don't make fun of it.  

I want to leave you with a Scripture passage that I have relied on several times in my life.  It is from Proverbs 3:5, and it says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."  This advice has never been more true than it is right now, in the midst of a global pandemic.  What we see when we look around is often scary, and can seem hopeless.  Try to remember that things aren't always what they seem to be in the natural realm.  God is up there, and He understands more than we do when it comes to the big picture.  Most of you will recover just fine after an infection, but for some it will be worse.  Trust in God, and don't be embarrassed to ask others to pray for you.  I hear that there are several effective vaccines on the horizon and a few really good therapeutics to help with symptoms.  All of this is good news - we are making progress quickly.  Besides, someday you may even decide to sit down and write about your experience in an attempt to help other people.  God is funny that way, He often taps us to give testimony about what we went through in our own life.  In this way, I believe that no experience is ever truly meaningless.  

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Rising Above Hate

What an interesting time to be alive.  I've caught myself using this phrase quite often over the past few years.  Things never really seem to 'settle down', so it continues to apply to each successive season.  My job today as a pastor is to comment on what I see happening in the news headlines, the American family, and the general public.  And what I am noticing often represents something akin to hate speech.  Unfortunately, it has seeped into every aspect of American life.  I listen to a podcast regularly by a pastor named R. Loren Sandford out of New Song Church Ministries.  He often mentions what he calls 'the rising tsunami wave of hate' that has built up slowly over time, and has now come to fruition - sweeping over the land like the hurricanes and derecho storms we saw earlier this year.  

Here is what I see when I look around today.  People rioting and protesting in the streets in various places and at different times.  Confusion about what to do if you contract COVID-19, and what it really means for the rest of the community.  I see political discord all around us, on both sides of the aisle.  Self-righteous pride is flowing freely from people who are absolutely certain that they are correct in their own worldview, while everyone else is wrong.  Patience is at a minimum, and the loudest voice is often the one that gets heard (regardless of whether or not that voice speaks to love or violence).  The tsunami wave of frustration and hate speech follows after all of these things, and social media only makes it easier to insult someone without personal accountability.    

So what are we to make of this situation?  Is it a lost cause … must we simply survive as best we can for as long as we can?  I believe that many people have taken their eyes off of Jesus, and re-routed their faith to the political arena - at least for the time being.  We have placed our hope in a human leader or group of leaders, and taken God off of the top shelf and placed Him somewhere down at the bottom.  This is of course a mode of idolatry, it happens any time we put something or someone in the top slot of our lives instead of God.  If you wish to see the consequences of this action, simply look around at the world we live in.  

I remember a time years ago, when I placed all of my admiration and trust in a single person.  It was one of my old martial arts teachers.  I was maybe fifteen years old at the time, and to me, he was the embodiement of strength and leadership.  I had ascribed these lofty attributes to him for so long, that I was stunned when that trust was finally broken.  One day during class, he decided to teach an unruly student 'a lesson' by essentially beating him up in front of the rest of the class.  Granted, the arrogant student was being inappropriate and rude, but he was just a teenager (maybe eighteen or nineteen at the time).  Though not seriously injured, the victim was deeply humiliated, and left class that night in tears.  We never saw him again.  Retribution and shame was the order of the day at that moment, and it definitely left an impact.  From that time on, I was in search of a new champion to idolize.  It wouldn't be until years later that I would come to meet Jesus through the church, and begin to properly place my adoration in the son of God.

Ephesians 2:14 says this, "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.  His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility."   Our country definitely needs to put hostility to death.  Although Paul was talking about the Jews and the Gentiles in this passage of Scripture, the resulting concept still applies.  It is the idea that two warring factions can be brought together and made one through God.  Doubtless Paul had to say this out loud and in his letters many times before it resonated.  For some, it probably still never took hold.  But it is enough for our purposes here today, to understand that it is no small thing for God to bring together these two groups of people and blend them into one church that worships and adores His son.  It's a spiritual solution to the problem of sin.  Staying separate and self-righteious breeds hatred and discord, while unity creates an atmosphere of peace and love.  One God, one people, one purpose.  

Let's spend a moment unpacking the following Scripture as well.  Jeremiah 10:21 says, "The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire of the Lord; so they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered."  In context, this passage was addressing the various leaders of the time, telling them that things weren't working out because they were listening to their own desires, and not God's voice.  I believe we can translate this into today's dialect as such: we think we are right all of the time, so we don't look any further than what is right in front of us.  Surrounding ourselves only with people who agree or are too afraid to suggest constructive criticism can lead to an atmosphere where the 'flock is scattered.'  Sooner or later, people will begin to catch on if a leader doesn't have their best interest at heart.  They will begin to see if this person they are following cannot be flexible and does not seek after Godly counsel.  The well will eventually run dry; the spell will be broken.  

It is very easy nowadays to get caught up in what I like to call sloganeering.  In other words, there are catchphrases for just about every viewpoint under the sun.  What a slogan tends to do, however, is to exhaust it's shelf life quickly.  After a few weeks or months of repeating a phrase, the content will often become muddled and it's original meaning lost.  The issue which the slogan represents may be alive and well, but the phraseology itself doesn't do it justice anymore.  It allows people to glom onto something they may not truly understand, start repeating it, and then before long a prideful attitude of exclusion or hate speech can develop.  Large crowds chant a catchphrase, leaders may use it to manipulate groups of people, and in the end … no one wins.  Sloganeering doesn't allow space for people to search after what God is saying with His still, small voice.  The flock will eventually scatter.  Entire groups of people get categorized by a slogan, and sometimes even seen as less than human.  The shepherds have indeed become senseless when this happens.  We then need God to both correct and redirect us.  This can be a painful process sometimes.  

How do we find our way back to a happier place, and is that even possible?  Jesus describes himself in the Bible as the light of the world.  If we are to switch gears and begin turning back to this light, I think we can follow four pieces of quick advice.  First, we will want to return to reading the Bible regularly.  I don't mean pop it open every once in a while in an attempt to win an argument or make someone feel bad about themselves, but rather, to actually invest some time in the Word.  Let God's voice lift slowly but surely off the page and into your heart.

Second, stay in prayer.  It is really difficult to be angry and hateful with someone if you are also praying for them once or twice a day.  Prayer also helps bring your own mindset alongside the Holy Spirit, and together you can walk in faith and begin to gravitate toward the light of Christ.  Prayerful people typically aren't angry people.  

Finally, forgive yourself when you fail to do either of these things well - and forgive others when they hurt you.  When verbal insults or physical violence rules the day, then forgiveness cannot flourish (remember my martial arts teacher).  Take a step back from the television set or the computer for a while, and go for a walk.  Let your mind float over the status of the personal relationships in your life.  Is there someone you need to forgive?  Is there someone that needs to forgive you perhaps?  It can start with interrupting the constant assault of media and all of the talking heads out there, in order to begin focusing your efforts on those in your immediate circle of influence.  Who cares what a given politician or leader is doing from day to day, instead think about what your neighbor or relative is up to.  Do they need your help?

Some people have said that it is too late for our country to turn around and repent from hateful rhetoric.  Maybe they are right, but as Christians we are required to keep fighting for God's voice.  We are instructed to love as we want to be loved, and to treat other people as valuable children of God.  Just  these two things can have a monumental impact on what we choose to say and do.  And when you feel that little inner voice of contempt or rage welling up inside of you, recognize that it isn't the Holy Spirit trying to speak.  It is something entirely different.  May God forgive us as a nation, have mercy on us as members of His corporate flock, and help us to repent from the way things are currently going.  How nice it would be to tell an entirely different national narrative to our children and grandchildren someday.  One that includes love and reverence for humankind, and a willingness to increase God's reach, regardless of the circumstances.  

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Life After Death sermon

I wanted to post my sermon from All Saints Day 2020 here for your viewing.  I hope you enjoy it, and that you also come to see that God's love is both powerful and consuming:

Life After Death by Jon Klaus  

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