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Reflections in a Crisis

 

The world has always been broken.

But today the cracks aren’t so well hidden, the frayed edges aren’t so neatly tucked away. Our weakness rises to the surface, is laid bare. Our real souls are showing without our idols taking up space.

Safety, financial security, health, sports, relationships, fitness, education, our church…all of the things that prop us up have fallen away. The world is turned upside down. Uncertainty and fear slips across borders, isn’t reserved for only the most desperate, and wraps around us all.

Economies grind down, the frailty of our health care system glares out at us, the vulnerability of our bodies and souls to unseen and unknown forces can’t be denied any longer.

This morning in El Salvador, hungry people spilled out of  barred up homes and into the streets. Their stomachs growling, their hearts pounding with fear. When you live so close to the edge, it doesn’t take much to push you over. Hungry stomachs are growling all over the world as a collective grief rises up and settles heavy across our shoulders.

 

What can I do to comfort the soul of a world on fire?

But I remember that the world has always been on fire, in need, broken and lost. The difference is today it feels so exposed, for all to see. A road of suffering stretches out in front of us. We step down the road and find out who we really are. A crisis can teach us about ourselves…we can choose fear or love. We can preserve ourselves or reach out to serve others.

Today we take small steps..a drop in the bucket, a half-whispered prayer, a message over the miles to a fearful friend, an extra donated dollar. We love because He first loved us. We  serve because He sacrificed. It is not easy to see our neighbor when we can’t see exactly what we ourselves are facing.

But that is the very call we have, isn’t it? Our mandate to wade into the choppy waters with a suffering world doesn’t end because we too are suffering. Our calling to love in the face of fear doesn’t end because we are so very fearful ourselves. And so we get up to face each day and look for ways to serve.

We have been called to El Salvador and here we stay working to love our neighbors, as others are doing all over the world. What can you do right where you are? What can you say? Who can you pray for? What torn space can you mend today?

The world is broken and that isn’t going away, even when this crisis eventually fades. Our brokenness isn’t going away either, but perhaps there in our weakness we will find our strength. The strength to know that God is still present in this world, He is still at work in the small moments of love and service. He has a call on our lives that continues through those small moments that will echo on through eternity. So today we move to follow Him in the face of fear, and in the hope that one day the collective grief will turn to collective joy.

For more on our COVID-19 crisis response in El Salvador, click here.
Let us know what you are up to in your corner of the globe, and let us know how we can pray! 

 

 

 

One Response to Reflections in a Crisis

  1. Thank you for what you are doing how you are stepping into that gap so beautifully. Showing the love of God to a hurting world ❤️

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