This Little Life

This pandemic has put us all on trial. It feels as though the Law just got an upgrade: the standard of a “good” person now includes socializing responsibly, sanitizing our environment safely, and living in quarantine successfully. In other words, there are now new ways to fail, a raised bar by which we are judged.

And of course we are being judged—by governing authorities, medical workers, neighbors, countries, colleagues, customers, banks, friends, social media followers, and even by our own spouses and children (as we learn to share our space!). A whole new set of criteria to qualify us as respectable, law-abiding citizens has just been adopted:

Use this quarantine season well—do not waste this sabbath/sanctification opportunity! (That’s my intention…)

Don’t miss any school-at-home assignments and Zoom calls with your children’s teachers! (Oops.)

Do NOT surrender to the Screens! (They have already won.)

Help our neighbors! (Trying to…)

Stay home! (Just going to the Starbucks drive-thru…)

Wear a mask! (Done.)

I have long believed that everyone is capable of committing every kind of sin, given the right circumstances. Well, it’s true. Sins I previously abhorred, like sloth and spiritual apathy, are now daily temptations I often give in to. I have read public confessions of people returning to past addictions—drinking, smoking, pornography, overeating—simply because they are at home with nothing better to do. We are incredibly vulnerable right now. The Coronavirus card is just too easy to pull and use as an excuse to get out of pre-pandemic promises—because the Virus is more than an excuse; it is a completely legit, life-altering disease.

By God’s grace, I’m well (or still asymptomatic!), so I can’t use Covid to get out of anything. I must accept my new normal—I now have more sins and guilt for Jesus to die for than I had a month ago.

God’s standards don’t flex for a pandemic. He still requires perfection. (Darn!)

The Law–which is reflective of God’s perfection and therefore good for us, continues to make demands of me that I cannot meet. This bad news is crushing. But it comes at the perfect time: Holy Week—the time of year when all of our good intentions are fulfilled by Jesus, our God-sent substitute, and we are forgiven (!!) for failing to live up to the Law.

I can’t help feeling like the unending rain this week (at least in Southern California) is a Flood-like cleansing of the earth. It is a 2 Chronicles 7:14 call to heal our land—not only with prayers of praise (easy), but with prayers of personal, communal confession, a rain of repentance—beginning with the lips of GOD’s people (hard). Let us cast our sins onto the body of Christ this Good Friday by confessing them. Real blood was shed for real sins. Our forgiven sins are the record of Jesus’ gracious work in our lives.

Let me get us started while the Holy Spirit is active…before I lose my nerve…

I cheated on a seminary exam. (The *most* sanctifying experience of my life!)

I was caught shoplifting a $3 item at Target. (Like I said, perfect circumstances…DM me for details.)

I yell too much at my kids. And my husband.

I text and drive regularly.

When a cashier gives me too much change, I keep it.

Sometimes I use four-letter words. And I like it.

I have filled my water cup with lemonade (but you already knew that…).

THANK YOU, JESUS, FOR GIVING ME YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. I CLEARLY HAVE NONE OF MY OWN.

A week ago, there were 163 deaths in the U.S. Today there are more than 5,000. America’s medical experts are predicting 100,000-200,000 casualties over the next two weeks…I can’t even wrap my mind around that.

While the medical battle against the Virus continues to intensify in our hospitals, it feels as though the mental battle in home quarantine may be just beginning. This awkward place of being home, yet feeling neither here nor there, everywhere and nowhere, is unsettling. Change is exhausting. Isolation is dehumanizing. I am quickly running out of personal resources, staying power to keep sheltering in place. I can’t keep the house clean. I can’t keep my kids occupied. I’m out of meal ideas. My mindset is off center. Although I love seeing the faces and hearing the voices of my friends and family on screen, I can already sense that sooner than later, Zoom just isn’t going to cut it.

And now, as of today’s news announcement, my kids are out for summer (well, practically!).

I am coming to the end of myself. My heart knows this is a good thing, but my body is resisting it. I’m uncomfortable. I’m not sleeping well. I’m anxious about how long this crisis will last. And I know I’m not alone. So many of us are looking for faith. Looking for strength. Looking for vision.

When there is little faith, little strength, and little vision, my gut tells me there is still Jesus.

But Jesus seems such a mediocre offer in the middle of a growing global pandemic (the second- and third-world countries haven’t even been hit hard yet…and how will they be able to handle it???). The adequate answers right now sound like VACCINATIONS, MONEY, MEDICAL EQUIPMENT, STRONG LEADERSHIP, SERVANTS.

Not Jesus.

Jesus, the answer to this crisis? MY answer to this crisis? Impossible.

Exactly. It is impossible to believe that Jesus is enough for us right now. He seems too inadequate to be true. So for those of us who even suspect that Jesus *could* be the answer to a problem too big to wrap our heads around, we are experiencing a miracle—the miracle of faith.

Faith is a miracle because it cannot be self-produced; it can only be given to us from God.

Our faith will not save the world, but Jesus will. He already did–on that first Easter, when He took every sin, sickness, personal and global tragedy onto Himself–on the cross.

Faith is the eye through which we see Jesus, the ear through which we hear Jesus, the hand by which we hold Jesus.

By placing our faith in Jesus, He wins the battle in our minds during times of crises.

1. WE ARE EXPOSED BECAUSE WE ARE INTERCONNECTED.
This morning while I was pouring Coffeemate (peppermint mocha) into my cup of coffee, it suddenly occurred to me that I should probably wash my hands, because who knows if the person who put the bottle of Coffeemate into the Vons refrigerator has the virus and just doesn’t know it? I left my cup of coffee on the counter and washed my hands. When I came back to my coffee, I realized I hadn’t put away the bottle of Coffeemate. I told myself I should wash my hands again after putting it back into the fridge. But I didn’t. Because I should have wiped down all of the groceries I brought home yesterday before putting them away. But I didn’t. It isn’t possible to wash our hands enough. We are more interconnected than we think, and therefore more exposed than we think. I am connected to the person who stocked Coffeemate, sourdough bread, butter, onions, celery, cream, and canned clams (yes, clam chowder was dinner last night), and finally the check-out guy who bagged my groceries and handed me the bags. In one shopping trip, if it is true that viruses can live on the surfaces of grocery items, I was beautifully connected to at least ten people I never even saw personally. But I could have also been fatally infected by them. And then I expose my family to the viruses from the grocery store…Wow. We are unintentionally killing each other, because we are closer to each other than we think. The world is smaller than we think. It is so clear now that our lives are a worldwide web of interdependent industries—a body with many parts. Each part affects the whole.

2. WE ARE NOT CREATED TO BE ALONE.
Yesterday President Trump limited gatherings to ten people or less, in order to slow the spread of the virus. This morning my county is encouraging no gatherings at all of any size. It was hard enough to stand more than a handshake away from the person next to me. (I need my personal space, but not that much space.) Now I am trying to figure out how to host an online meeting for me and my kids to “see” our friends from inside our homes… People can only isolate for so long. That’s why prison cells are torturous. Even Tom Hanks, in the movie “Castaway,” resorted to drawing a face on a volleyball for companionship while he was stranded on an island alone.

3. WE TAKE “NORMAL LIFE” FOR GRANTED.
Just a few weeks ago I was having dinner with friends at a restaurant (shabu buffet). We chatted and laughed without a care about contamination. We ate as much as we wanted, yet barely made a dent in the buffet. This week that restaurant is closed and I am not going to get to hang out with those friends for a long time. I should have enjoyed that dinner more. I should have been more present. I should have hugged each friend before we got into our cars and left. Today, I am all here. This is my daily journaling time, to be fully awake and alive in the moment. Today I will enjoy my family and home life, even when we sin against each other. Today I will open my refrigerator and give thanks that I have food enough to share. Today I will not waste food; I will appreciate each bite. And I’ll encourage my children to do the same. I’ve told them many, many times not to waste food and to thank God for each meal, but today it will be different.

4. WE NEED HELP FROM OUTSIDE OURSELVES.
Like I said, we are accidentally infecting and killing each other. We cannot help each other without risk of exposure. It is so clear that we need to be rescued by a Savior from another world. A wise teacher once taught me, “A drowning man cannot save another drowning man. A third man must throw a rope to both from the riverbank.” That Man is one of us, but more than us. Thank you, Jesus!

5. WE HAVE THE GIFT OF TECHNOLOGY.
We will stay connected to each other during social separation. For all the pooh-poohing of technology I have done over the years that are my kids’ childhoods, I find myself thanking God for Zoom conferencing, live-streaming video, podcasts, texting, messaging, social media, and the good ol’ phone call. This Coronavirus pandemic is bringing out the best in technology—its ability to help us with interpersonal communication. Technology is an awesome servant in times like this. Tonight my family will be participating in a virtual prayer meeting using Zoom. How amazing is that? I can’t wait to see the faces of my brothers and sisters!

6. WE ARE THE CHURCH.
If not for the governmental enforcement of “social distancing,” how would we have learned–truly experienced–the truth that the Church is not a building, a service, a site? All those Sunday services in church have strengthened our souls for such a time as this. When we cannot be with God in a safe building, we will find Him with us in quarantine cruise ships, hotels, homes, and hospital rooms. The Coronavirus may be uncontained, scattered all over the world, BUT SO IS THE CHURCH. Church: Rise up! Love those around you. Contact two people today to ask if they are okay. Carry each other’s burdens. Share resources. Let us not forget the saints in history who voluntarily stayed in harm’s way when everybody else left, because to die is gain. Courage is acting despite the fear. Above all, let us PRAY. Let us pray for those on the front lines. May God bless them for blessing us in this unprecedented time of human history.

My emotions are having a hard time processing the Coronavirus stats. My breath stops every night when I turn on the evening news. Yesterday, another 743 people in Italy died. 514 in Spain. 163 in the U.S. Supposedly the virus will peak in the next 14 to 21 days here in the U.S. My country is a giant hospital right now. Most of us are in the waiting room, bracing ourselves for what is yet to come.

Let me just say, as a Christian, I am afraid, too. I am afraid of what I will see happen over the next two to four weeks, and then over the next two to four years. I am afraid of what this war will cost us. I haven’t lost anyone I know or love, but nothing guarantees that I won’t. Shortage has seemed the global theme—not enough time, tests, masks, gloves, gowns, ventilators, hospital beds, help. Even two trillion dollars doesn’t seem enough to stimulate the economy enough to revive it. It doesn’t seem enough. Then again, neither did the five loaves of bread and two fish.

Still, it feels wrong to eat eggs and bacon in comfortable quarantine this morning while Spain is filling an ice rink morgue with deceased bodies, friends are losing their businesses and jobs, and hundreds more will die today. People are dying every hour, as in this hour! I am already grieving for them. Though I try, I can’t fully enjoy my food. I can’t fully enjoy my home. I can’t fully enjoy my kids. (By the way, “sheltering in place” disqualifies our school-at-home experience from true, life-giving homeschooling.) I am distracted and disturbed by the current events. And I cannot disconnect myself from them. The signs on the supermarket shelves are right: “Limit 1 per customer. We are in this together.”

How to prepare for the events that are expected to unfold over the coming weeks? Let’s use our fears to be the people we’ve always intended to be: Write love letters to our children. Send texts to say “I love you” and “Thank you.” Humble ourselves to ask, “Will you please forgive me?” Confess the sins we already know we’ll need to admit one day.

Most importantly, let’s secure our eternal destinies by bowing victoriously before the throne of grace, where we will find Jesus, who earned our righteousness for us with His life, and paid the cost of our sins with His death. Forgive us, God, for denying and resisting Your sacrifice for our salvation. Help our unbelief!

Finally, though the thought gives me chills, let’s prepare to suffer well. Thank God we never suffer alone; we always suffer with Him, with Jesus, and therefore with promise of resurrection.

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.” -2 Corinthians 4:8-12

Let us live with careful intention, maximizing these days.

For the past two years, I’ve been praying for bedroom furniture. That’s right—a bed frame, a dresser, two nightstands, and two good bedside lamps for reading (or at least one, for my side). There are dozens of furniture stores. Plus, there’s Costco. Why not just pick something and be done with it?

You don’t understand. I’ve had vivid visions of myself lying in this plush, feathery, presidential suite-type bed. The frame is soft to the touch, not hard (they’re called upholstered bed frames, in case you didn’t know). I am under a white comforter made of Egyptian cotton, surrounded by embroidered sham pillows. I am lying there reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Toni Morrison or C.S. Lewis, illuminated by a pewter swinging sconce.  A cup of hot peppermint tea is steaming on my cherry wood nightstand. The husband is downstairs watching CSI. There are no dogs barking, no cars honking, no kids crying.

Still, just pick something.

Consider my parents. They’re still using the bedroom set they bought when they got married. Consider my husband’s parents. They’re still using the bedroom set they bought when they got married. Consider thousands of other American couples who are lying in the same bed, using the same dresser, dusting the same nightstands they’ve had for thirty or forty or fifty years.

Buying bedroom furniture is like buying a wedding band. It’s too inconvenient and expensive to replace. You only get one. Forever. So you better pick something you love.

I’m thinking Restoration Hardware. Or Ethan Allen.

Now you understand. We’re talking already-assembled pieces. Real wood. Maybe even monthly payments. Costco’s not going to cut it.

There’s a little voice in the back of my head that keeps saying, Are you kidding me? There are people suffering from terminal illnesses, children dying of hunger, men trying to figure out how not to spill oil in the ocean, orphans in China awaiting adoption, puppies starving in puppy mills… Bedroom furniture?

Uh, yeah.

I also pray about food (what to feed my children three times a day), money (how to have more of it), the broken hose in our backyard (that it won’t ruin my husband’s weekend—because it very well could)… I pray for my friends, my family, my kids, my health, my desires, my life. See the pattern?

Richard Foster gives selfish prayer a nice name: Simple Prayer. “Simple Prayer involves ordinary people bringing ordinary concerns to a loving and compassionate Father. There is no pretense in Simple Prayer. We do not pretend to be more holy, more pure, or more saintly than we actually are…” (Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home)

I used to think that I should outgrow saying ordinary, self-centered prayers and say more “other-centered” prayers. I used to think that only spiritually immature people pray for themselves and their interests over and over and over. Only spiritually immature people ask God for stuff. Spiritually sophisticated people, on the other hand, have learned to rise above their “felt needs.” They ask God to transform them, challenge them, and use them. Sophisticated Christians pray for the concerns that are on God’s mind and heart, not theirs. They spend lots of time praying for the “lost,” which is commendable. Sophisticated Christians don’t ask God for incidentals, for stuff.

But as I grow older, my felt needs are multiplying. I need money more than ever before; life is turning into a giant pile of bills—mortgage, utilities, cell phone, groceries, gasoline, diapers, wedding gifts, birthday presents, school tuition, Happy Meals, crayons, stickers, etc. I also feel the need for a social life more than ever before, particularly with other working moms. Then there’s “me time,” a need I feel particularly strongly about. And to say I need a professional housecleaner is an understatement. If I must go on, I need a sense of purpose that extends beyond being a parent. Let me top off this list with my need for ten tips to build a healthy marriage, seven ways to raise happy kids, and five secrets for staying slim. I am, in essence, a body of felt needs.   

Thus, my prayers are becoming less sophisticated, more self-centered. It’s as though my sanctification is stuck in reverse and I’m immaturing into a kid who believes that the world revolves around her. I rarely pray for the world. I rarely pray for the missionaries in distant lands. I’ve stopping asking God to end world hunger, to help doctors find a cure for cancer, to clean up after tornados, hurricanes, and earthquakes. I can’t seem to make it that far down my list of things to pray for. Which is why I never pray for President Obama. He simply isn’t in the top ten.

I suppose this is why I depend on the pastoral prayer at church to cover all the areas of prayer that I miss at home.

“By praying for the needs of the world, the government’s leaders, the church universal, as well as for the needs of a particular church, we learn in our public prayers what we too often neglect in our private prayers: to look beyond ourselves and the interest of our own family.” (Michael Horton, A Better Way)

As physical, weak, sinful people, we are always needy.  That’s why Jesus taught His disciples to ask for daily bread. I like to think of daily bread as more than a baguette, as a category for felt needs. Daily Bread is the catch-all bucket for stuff.

I don’t think God judges our prayers when we say them. I don’t think the word “trivial” exists in God’s mind. God actually helps us to say even our most disgraceful prayers (if such a thing exists) by having Jesus intercede for us. Jesus is my personal prayer editor. I’m sure some of my prayers are completely rewritten by Jesus before they ever reach the Father. His mediation makes the prayers of sinners acceptable to a holy God.

I don’t know how to judge prayer. I don’t know who is good at praying and who isn’t. I don’t know what a “great prayer” sounds like. But I am sure the people who have mastered prayer don’t know it.

After almost twenty years of calling myself a Christian, I expect near-professional status by now. I should be praying for the entire world, giving lots of money to worthy causes, frequenting overseas missions fields, sharing the gospel with my neighbors, confessing my sins daily, reading the Bible regularly, showing up at church every Sunday.

I forget to pray before I eat.

I give too much money to Target. And Starbucks.

I’ve been on only one mission trip (five weeks in China).

I’ve never shared my faith with any of my neighbors (though I have baked Christmas cookies for them).

I am slow to admit my sins (ask the husband), and even slower at confessing them.

I can’t remember the last time I had a real, solid Quiet Time.

I listen to lots of hip hop. (This was not always the case.)

Forget “radical” discipleship and “crazy love”; I can barely manage a nominal Christian life (i.e., repent-believe-repeat).

My sins are ever before me. They seem to compound year after year, like credit card interest. I do not get better as I grow older; I get worse. I can’t adequately express how shocked I am by this. Who knew that marriage, motherhood, mortgage payments, aging parents, and all of life’s demands would bring out not the best in me but the worst?

The bad news: I am not legacy material. Nothing will be named in my memory.

The good news: My progressively dire circumstances are perfect for the Gospel to thrive. The need for a righteousness outside of myself—in Christ—is obvious when I am increasingly ashamed of what I am within.

After twenty years of negative progress, there is no reason for me to think that the next twenty (or sixty) years will be any different. I have every reason to believe that God will only continue to prune everything “good” in me, in order that on the day I die, I might actually and finally believe: I am a sinner.

The daily Christian life is a cycle of coming and going. Leaving and returning. Now I’m here, now I’m not. Now I love God, now I don’t. Now I surrender, now I won’t.

(How does God put up with this?)

Consistency, commitment, conviction. Problem, problem, problem.

I’ve tried regular exercise of the “spiritual disciplines”, as well as accountability groups, retreats, sermons, seminars, self-authored contracts, conferences, CDs, and many, many books purchased at my local Christian bookstore.

Still, good intentions erode, passion fades, will-power expires. (And it’s only 10 a.m.)

And then Christianity feels like an everlasting climb up a descending escalator—tiring, tedious, and unconvincing. Instead of turning up my iPod and putting one foot in front of the other like a “strong Christian”, I let my feet hit the floor. (I guess I’m not a strong Christian.)

And it is here I realize just what kind of God I need. I need the God who possesses more consistency, commitment, and conviction than I do. I need the God who will fall away from heaven and descend to me. I need the God who will keep coming and coming, even though I keep leaving.

Falling away is a daily phenomenon. But so is redemption.

I’m still trying to figure out if I really love God. I do so little that demonstrates love for God. I mean to talk to Him in prayer, but I do the dishes instead. I mean to read His Word, but I check email instead. I mean to get more involved at church, but haven’t gotten around to it. I barely make it to church on Sundays.

It is possible that I only love (and I use this word very loosely) God because He loves me. It’s an obligatory, reciprocal love, the kind of love celebrities have for their fans. It’s fickle at best, fake at worst.

I always thought that if I searched deep within my heart— deep, deep, deep within—I would unearth true love for God. I could hold it up to God like a nugget of gold and smile, declaring, “See? I knew it was there. I do love you.” Instead, what I find in the depths of my heart is fear of God and need for Him, not exactly love for Him.

Yet I continue to convince myself that I love God. I surround myself with people who love God. I act as if I love God. Philip Yancey says, “For me, the life of faith sometimes consists of acting as if the whole thing is true. It’s much easier to act your way into feelings than to feel your way into actions…” (Reaching for the Invisible God)

The problem is, it’s all an act. I fear that the act will never actualize. But I operate on the assumption that true love for God will be cultivated in me—eventually.

Until then, God continues to love me. He loved me before I ever loved Him, and He loves me when I don’t love Him. The foolishness of the gospel is that it has to be this way. If God’s love was conditional like human love, it wouldn’t compel a life of discipleship. It wouldn’t inspire worship. It would rip out the very heart of Christianity–the scandalous nature of God’s love.

God gives me the love He wants from me. What he demands, He also provides. All my love for God is borrowed from God. If He did not provide me with love for Him, I would have no love of my own to offer Him. That God accepts His own love as mine is sheer grace.

In his book Putting Amazing Back into Grace, Michael Horton says, “[God] loves us because of his own disposition, not because of ours. He can love the unlovely because he is God and he does not need a worthy object; unlike us, he can simply choose to love as he pleases. And if there is anything standing in the way of his love, he is powerful enough to remove the obstacle. The cross, of course, demonstrates the lengths he was willing to go for those he loved.”

I wish I could love God with the same kind of love with which He loves me. Love that is independent of its object. Love that is given and given and given, even if it is never received. Love that does not stand outside of bars, bedrooms, and brothels, but follows you in. Love that isn’t quantified, calculated, or strategized.

Because of the curse of the Fall, I think my love for God will always be somewhat selfish and shallow, motivated partly by fear, partly by guilt, and partly by a sense of duty. My love for God will always be broken.

God is love. Perfect love. I cannot improve on that or add to it. That God himself is love frees Him to save me without having to first be loved by me.

The good news is: Love for God is not what ultimately saves us; the love of God is.

What a relief.