The Covid-19 crisis is causing pain and suffering around the world. There are the victims of the disease. And the parents and grandparents who miss physical contact with their children and grandkids. First responders and medical professionals are working long days and risking their lives for the greater good. The unemployed wonder how they will financially survive. Parents struggle to balance working from home with helping their kids do their schoolwork.
We are emotionally and spiritually weary and exhausted. And it doesn’t appear that it will end any time soon.
Recently, I was deeply touched by an experience at my local county agency in Florida where I went to register my car. Due to the crisis, the number of people served was limited, and there were fewer workers to help them.
When my number was finally posted on the digital billboard, I walked to the cubicle and struck up a conversation with the man behind the counter. “How are you doing?”
“I worry for my family,” he said. “I work with the public all day. I don’t want to bring the virus home to my children and spouse.” He then told me that his sister had passed away, not due to the Coronavirus, but they couldn’t bury her.
“I am sorry for your loss.” I responded. “I will be praying for you.” In the moment, they were the only words I could summon. And we proceeded with the business of registering my car. But I went home thinking, and still do, about this man who was overwhelmed and worried about his family and his inability to fully grieve the loss of his sister.
Where do we find strength in these stressful and scary times? How are we spiritually and emotionally replenished so we can push forward and not let fear get the best of us? Just as we wouldn’t go to an empty well to find water, we don’t lean on just ourselves when we are emotionally depleted and have no strength.
Instead, we turn in prayer to God who gives strength to those who wait upon Him.
Isaiah declared, “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
Through God, we tap into a power unlike anything we can generate on our own. Our resources and capability dwindle by the minute, but not God’s. The prophet’s words to the tired and weary in exile point us to the source of endless power and energy. God gives us the spiritual and emotional capacity to go one more day. One more week. One more month.
Every day I pray for the county worker I met, that God will strengthen and protect him. I think of those on the front lines battling this virus. I pray for those who are fighting illness to take one more breath. I pray for those who have lost their jobs, that God will help them get through these hard times.
In this season of uncertainty, let us turn to God to sustain us. May we all find strength one day at a time.
