The Common Thread

John Eldredge has often been the source of personal epiphanies for me... well, God working through him, but you know what I mean.

In this week's podcast called "Our Eden Hearts," John and some friends discussed how they're doing and how we can best care for our hearts during this global season.  They had a lot of good things to say about how this collective exhaustion is affecting us.  How we're turning to vacations or food or big home projects or whatever else in our efforts to find a bit of joy as we keep moving forward, and how it's never really enough to satisfy us or bring healing.

Then he talked for a minute about how deeply upset and angry people have become on both sides of the COVID debate -- all the heated conversations about face masks and vaccines and more.  And he said that on both sides, that level of intensity really boils down to the desperate longing for life to be good again.  And immediately, that hit me and made so much sense.  That's the common thread between the people I love who are anti-mask and opposed to getting the vaccine AND the people I love who strongly believe in masks and wish everyone was vaccinated.  They're coming at it from very different angles for various personal reasons, but underneath it all is the God-given desire and hope for life as it was meant to be -- people alive and well and free and enjoying their lives together.

It makes sense to me that the part of our hearts that is designed for eternal perfection with God is hurting and struggling to know how to deal with the extreme level of loss and destruction around us.  There has been loss of human life, loss of health, loss of relationships, loss of work, loss of financial stability, loss of future plans, loss of normalcy, loss of freedoms, loss of emotional security, loss of the sense of safety, often loss of basic kindness, and so many ambiguous losses.  No one is coming out of this unscathed, and it's been long enough that people are tired and deeply frustrated.  Anyway, it was helpful for me to recognize "our longing for life to be good again" as the common thread shared on both sides of these endless debates and impassioned memes and posts.  It always makes a huge difference when you truly know someone's backstory, and when I think through that, I can usually understand how people developed their beliefs on either side here.  I despise division and have no desire to stir up tension or get involved in these specific debates, but this gives me a deeper understanding of where the most passionate people are coming from on both sides, and an idea of how to pray for people and encourage more hope going forward.  We all need more of the grace, peace, wisdom, and hope that only God can provide. ❤

"May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance."
~Jude 1:2