Stay the Course

FOCUS TEXT
"For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains." Matthew 24:7-8 (ESV)


RECALIBRATE

1. If evil is ordinary, and the banality of everyday life includes disasters and wars, pain and suffering, how will we recognize when the end is here?

2. My mom always said when something broke, “Oh well! It’s all going up in the big burn anyway!” If indeed this is the beginning of the end, why try to make it better? Why paint, write, sing new songs, build new things if it’s all about to end?

3. Isn’t trying to make it better and sweeter here making us more comfortable and maybe even complacent?


Lisa Graham McMinn writes in The Contented Soul that when the expected good doesn't come--we can look for the unexpected good. For many of us, the pandemic has meant disappointment with the activities and events and plans we had in mind for 2020 being changed. So perhaps we can think about the activities looking for joy and cultivating delight during times of limited travel and activity during pandemic--has there been something in nature or with art or food or dance or film you've been able to do even though the "expected good" hasn't come?

"Creating good societies in spite of it all"