“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering, can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” –Helen Keller.
If anyone knew a thing or two about adversity, it was Helen Keller. I’ve heard it said over and over again that these are tumultuous times, but when has adversity not been an issue? There was no television coverage of the Great Depression or World War II. Media coverage was limited to a few meager stations during the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. But today, with not only endless media coverage, but the propensity for the media to play off the fear of Americans to make a buck or tout their political leanings, you’d have to completely disconnect in order to be immune to it.
Thursday, my husband and I went into Lowe’s to make a small purchase (chalky paint, because I need a creative outlet aside from writing) and the young clerk at the register was shaking her head, mouth twitching in amusement. “That was a first for me,” she said. “What’s that?” my husband asked. “I just sold ten cases of toilet paper,” she said. “We’re, like, the last place left that has any.” I didn’t know Lowe’s even carried toilet paper.
This was my first indication that panic over the Coronavirus had escalated to ridiculous proportions. I should have known when my favorite vintage store, Bleu 32 (Columbia, Tennessee) was nearly empty. “Everyone’s holed up,” Amy, a shop employee and interior stylist, told us. “Fear is running rampant, and people are panicking, because they’re putting their faith in the wrong thing.” The checkout clerk at Kroger’s said the same thing when I asked her why people are hoarding toilet paper, of all things. She said, “They’re afraid they’re going to be put under quarantine, because they have no faith.”
I saw a story posted on Facebook Saturday through Love What Matters—the woman writing the story was responding to a sad state of affairs—a 92-year-old man who was searching for just one package of toilet paper to get him through the month. Despite shuffling through three different stores with his cane, there was none to be found. He told the author of the story that he’d seen much worse times in his life, like the depression, but people came together to help each other—they weren’t out for themselves, thereby making it harder for everyone else.
I don’t want to belittle this virus or people who are fearful of getting sick, but it’s like Chicken Little running around proclaiming, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling.” Panic breeds panic. I will admit to checking my toilet paper stock to see if we had enough for the next few weeks, but then I realized if we didn’t, nothing could be done about it. God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it; I don’t think toilet paper is above His skill set. This is the perfect opportunity for those of us who put our faith in Jesus to share (and show) His love. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.”
None of us are exempt from adversity—it’s part of a broken, sinful world. How we react to it is what matters. Years ago, I went to a conference put on by author Donald Miller called Storyline. It was eye opening for me, because it helped me to see that the lowest points in our lives are always redeemed by God. He had us fill out a timeline of our experiences and mark the negatives below the timeline and the positives above the timeline. Once I could visualize it that way, it was clear. Every positive occurred due to a negative.
When my first husband (of nearly 23 years) walked out on our marriage with no warning, I thought my life was over. The truth was, it was just beginning. It brought me to my knees, literally and spiritually. I turned my life over to Jesus who had a better plan and purpose for me. I’m now married to an amazing, godly husband who encouraged me to follow the desire to write—a calling I received from God. Where do those stories come from? The hope I have in Jesus through the tragic circumstances that affected my own life—abandonment, my daughter’s near-fatal car accident and Traumatic Brain Injury, the death of my Christian brother from suicide, sexual abuse, life!
I’m not “selling” books, I’m offering hope to a world that desperately needs it. I’m certainly not going to foolishly expose myself to illness, but I’m not going to hide away in my home, either. These are definitely tumultuous times, and the enemy is going to use whatever means he can to make us more divisive. It’s in situations like the Coronavirus that our true character (and where our dependence lies) is revealed.
Comments 2
So very true! I figure, I have to die of something sooner or later unless the Rapture happens, and if this is how I go, so be it!! God’s in control, He can worry about this, I’m not!!! I feel sorry for people running around panic buying tp of all things!!
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Amen, sister! I feel so blessed to feel peace in the midst of the craziness.