Dear Gigi,
I really thought things would calm down by now. But as Covid restrictions are loosening up, and the virus is making a resurgence, it feels like life will never get back to normal. The world is becoming a place I don’t recognize any more and I am feeling lost here. Can you help me find some perspective?

The world she is a’changin’. Again.

It was the summer of 1966.  After breakfast and chores, my mother would send us outside to play.  Other than bathroom breaks and lunch, outside is where we stayed until sunset.  If it was miserably hot out we might have been able to stay inside for a while, where we’d work on classifying and categorizing books for a neighborhood library, or play with Barbie dolls.  But for the most part, we were outside.

We rode bikes, barefoot and helmet-less, around the neighborhood. Even more alarming, we frequented a secluded wooded area across a busy street where we dug a shallow trench, at the end of which we dug a deeper and larger “room”. We laid found plywood across the trench and covered the whole thing with downed leaves, creating a hidden tunnel.  We called it Pismo and no one knew it was even there except for us kids, and we’d secret ourselves over there whenever we could.

We’d often spend the night in the backyard – sometimes on hot nights we’d sleep on cots on the patio, other times in a pup tent in the yard.

We were on our own a lot. We were an independent lot.

And while such irresponsible parenting is unthinkable today, it wasn’t a bad thing then. It was just a different world. Over the past 20 years we’ve become super safety conscious (as opposed to my pre-seat belt childhood) with five point harnesses in car seats, strollers, and high chairs, and everywhere you turn.

The winds of change are blowing again. Today, we are hearing of more and more cities requiring mandatory face masks in public to repress the Covid-19 virus from rampant proliferation. It’s a new world. Safety measures are becoming survival measures.

As we roll into fall and the re-opening of schools, we move forward with a bit of trepidation, not knowing what will happen.  Will a resurgence of the virus send us all back home again? Are masks and social distancing going to be the way of our new world for the unforeseeable future?  Will our economy survive all the upheaval?

Being confined to home except for essential masked trips out and back – this just may be our life for a good long time into the future.  Some suggest that we will never be where we were before, but ever fighting the next super virus. We’ve survived change before. We will survive it again.

Change is inevitable and part of life, and try as we might, we cannot control it. How does this make you feel? Fearful? Anxious? Filled with dread? Did you know you can be filled with a peace is beyond your understanding? Such peace – and the corresponding gift of courage – is given to the child of God who trusts in him for his loving care and sovereign oversight of the future we cannot see or even predict.  If you’ve not experienced this peace, stop right now and receive the gift of God’s grace by surrendering the leadership of your life to him and then participate in his plan for your life as he uses you to share his peace with others.

Love,
Gigi

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. –Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)