Ten Resolves from 1 Corinthians 13 for COVID-19 Reopening
My truck registration needed renewal. The Idaho County county courthouse finally opened again for business last week.
Upon arrival I was immediately greeted with what I call the new abnormal post-Coronavirus.
A LINE!
It stretched into the hall with six feet between folks required no less.
I didn’t move to rural America from crowded Orlando to wait in any more insufferable lines, or traffic for that matter!!
Welcome to the new not-so-normal world of emerging from COVID-19 lockdown.
Then I heard that painful, still, small inaudible voice–again.
“Curtis Heffelfinger (that’s what Jan calls me when she wants to get my attention), you are still not the most patient man on the planet, eh?”
Um, I guess not.
Then I remembered the sermon I had just preached the previous Sunday, Mother’s Day, “The Greatest of These”–1 Corinthians 13:1-13.
I wondered how the love chapter’s verses 4-7, which detail love’s active ingredients, might shape my way and perhaps others forward through the pandemic recovery.
I arrived at the following ten resolves, all desperately requiring the Lord’s help for my weakness:
One, I will manifest patience as I wait in lines for needed services, dutifully standing on my X marks the spot.
Two, I will treat essential workers and everyone I encounter with kindness, thanking them for their service with a smile.
Three, I won’t envy younger people wishing that I at age 67 were at lesser risk than they.
Four, I won’t boast that I happen to live in a county which still has only three confirmed cases. I could just as easily still be on lockdown with those I love in Central Florida.
Five, I won’t be rude to others who differ with me about the innumerable COVID-19 challenges which generate such wide and vigorously held opinions.
Six, I won’t insist on my own way in leading our church forward but rather carefully listen to the concerns of our people and the counsel of my fellow elders before arriving at decisions.
Seven, I won’t give way to irritability with others. Rather I will overlook offenses whenever possible, allowing for the real effect of denied privileges and even significant losses in their lives.
Eight, I won’t succumb to resentment for the Lord’s providence in permitting a pandemic He could have just as easily prevented.
Nine, I won’t rejoice in the evil of unrest, rebellion, and incivility which abound, but rejoice with every truth yet to be revealed about these once-in-my-lifetime experiences.
Ten, I will bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things, whatever the new abnormal brings, because I’ve built my house upon the rock of Jesus and His truth.
No rain, floods, winds, or virus can beat upon this house to make it fall (Matt. 7:24-27).
That alone explains such resolves of love and the grace to act, albeit imperfectly, upon them.
And so I must ask:
Is your house built upon the rock and in these difficult times does the fragrance of love fill its every room?
PEACEMAKING PARAGONS 