“How will COVID-19 change me?” and Other Important Questions

NANA’S HOUSE by Teresa Bell Kindred

By now you have probably seen a version of the following floating around on Facebook for the last few weeks. I don’t know who wrote it, but it did make me think.

Traffic is gone, gas is affordable. Bills are extended. Kids are home with their families. Parents are home taking care of their children. Fast food is replaced with home cooked meals. Hectic schedules replaced by naps, rest, and relaxation. The air seems cleaner. The world is quieter. People are conscious of hygiene and health. Money doesn’t seem to make the world go round anymore. Doctors and nurses are being praised and recognized instead of athletes and celebrities. And we now have time, finally, to stop and smell the roses.

Whoever wrote this made some good points. It doesn’t apply to everyone. I know lots of folks still working, but I get the gist of what the writer is saying. We’d be crazy not to notice how quickly and radically the world changed.

COVID-19 has touched all of us and the world will never be the same. I can’t speak for how it will change health care, politics, or society, but I can look inside myself and ask, “How will this experience change me?”

When this is over, how will I answer the question: “What really matters?”

How will America answer the question, “What really matters?”

That led me to further thoughts about how maybe this experience should change us:

When this is over … if our churches aren’t full, shame on us.
When this is over … if we go back to “life in the fast lane” without missing a beat, shame on us.
When this is over … if we don’t continue spending more time in prayer and reading our Bibles, shame on us.
When this is over … if we go back to placing actors, entertainers and sports stars back on a pedestal and take for granted teachers, healthcare workers, those who serve in the military, and firefighters, shame on us.
When this is over … if we go back to being intolerant of someone because they are different from us with regard to politics, skin color, religious preference, etc., shame on us.

There’s a song I love called “From a Distance,” and the chorus says,

God is watching us
God is watching us
God is watching us from a distance.

(You can hear the song on YouTube right here.)

Now, before this pandemic is over, think about how you want your life to change and then don’t forget about it. We have the power to change! We always have had it, but we forget. So let’s not mess it up. Let’s do better for the sake of our children, grandchildren and future generations.

We will never forget the people we have lost to this disease or the difficulties we experienced during this time, this pandemic, but we can learn from it and change for the better.

Because God is watching us, and He sees who we are and what we could be … from a distance.