Slip-Sliding Away

Do you feel the earth slipping under your feet?  Everything is changing and will not be the way it was before March 1, 2020.  What we could depend on is no longer dependable.  Much of the familiar is dying. Restaurants, department stores, businesses, shops, and services are changing the way they are doing business and praying for a rebound. Bankruptcies are announced daily as businesses try to regroup from the Corona catastrophe. 

Many of those places were part of the rhythm of my life.  Restaurants we visited on a regular basis are closing for good and we will miss their good food and service.  Many stores where I used to go for retail therapy are struggling to reopen. Buying online is not the same as in-store browsing.  Our church will reopen on June 14 but will scale back summer programs and camps for children and students.  I have put off several wellness checks to doctors and dentists.  Our local hospital is facing layoffs because people are afraid to go in for elective surgeries. 

Our aviation consulting company has been put on ice like the commercial airplanes that are parked in the desert until passenger demand returns. We thought 2020 was going to be the year when twenty years of hard work was going to pay off.  Disappointing—yes! Decisions will have to be made that we did not anticipate or prepare for.

When the earth shifts or a tidal wave comes in, it’s a good time to reevaluate priorities. There are at least seven changes I can make in my thinking and actions.

1. Be even more thankful for all my blessings.
2. Pray for those families who have lost loved ones due to the virus.
3. Help those who have physical and other needs.
4. Be positive about change. Complaining is not productive.
5. Place all the circumstances of my life in God’s loving hands.
6. Let go of the life I had planned and live the life he has set before me.

 “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the

LORD’S purpose that prevails.”  Proverbs 19:21