COVID 19. There! I said it. Now, let’s talk about something else, shall we? Like you, I am a bit tired of hearing about nothing but this pandemic.
How ’bout them Diamondbacks!?! Oh, that’s right, they are not yet playing due to the COVID 19 virus. Okay, let’s try this: Any vacation plans for summer? Yikes! Once again no one is going anywhere because of….wait for this……the COVID 19 virus. Hmmm. I think I will take the grandchildren to the park. What? It’s closed? I don’t even have to say why, do I?
Yes! The COVID 19 virus seems to be dominating our life in most every aspect. Wear masks. Wash your hands until they are dry and cracked. By all means, DO NOT touch your face! Take whatever meat the grocery store has and use both sides of the toilet paper.
Let’s not get too excited. Our lives are often dominated by many factors. As we age our aging can dominate with aches, pains, and loss of some functions. Diabetics have to watch what they eat. People wanting healthy life styles have to be physically active and eat healthily. CPA’s have to keep up with a tremendous volume of new tax laws annually. Students must study, do their labs, take tests, and write their papers. Many things can, at times, and at all times, dominate our life or at least some segment of our life.
Yet we go on, don’t we?. We still are able to have fairly full lives despite those things that do or would dominate us or some part of us. We go on because we are still us! I am still me. Those things which can dominate do not have the capacity to rob us of who we are and who we are becoming. Sometimes they even shape us into becoming a better us…a better me.
We are children of God. We are people gifted by God. COVID 19, diabetes, final exams and grades cannot take that from us. Working at home, working alone, cannot take from us who we are at our core. Such things that dominate us can annoy us, frighten us, cause us some vigilance and diligence, but cannot make us into other than a child of God.
As I listen to you, speak with you, I hear YOU! I don’t hear some person I no longer recognize. I hear people doggedly plowing through this quite new and very different experience. COVID 19 has changed our perspective on many things, but it has not changed us! It has not changed who we are.
It remains a proud privilege to serve as pastor to a determined community of young adults, middle aged folk, and elderly people whom, despite much pressure, remain
who they…who YOU are. Keep being YOU!
Hanging in there with you,
Gary N McCluskey
Pastor, University Lutheran Church
Lutheran Campus Ministry
Arizona State University