“Be Wise”

When I was in college, I took an anthropology course.  We talked about cultures.  Different cultures have characteristic ways of expression.  In some, why you want to tell people to behave, the focus is on order.  In others, it is on morality.  With the French people it is, sois sage, “be wise”.

We are over a month into our present “stay-at-home” order.  Some people feel protected by it.  Others are anxious for things to be back to the way they were.  The reality is that we do not know when it will be safe for us to go back to stores and restaurants and churches and social events.  So we must proceed with caution and wisdom.  And the reality is that there is no returning to the way things were overnight.  Most likely we will come out of our sheltering in place in some kind of plan involving stages.  At least for a while, what we have, when some things do come back, will be different from the way they were two months ago.  And we really do not know when is best to start this.

The news is full of stories like that from the Internet of the 35-year-old man in Colorado, a social worker who was training for a marathon, when he came down with Covid-19.  He had to be placed on a ventilator.  He eventually recovered and when the nurses wheeled him to his ride home, he saw his little girl smiling at him from her car seat.  He cried and spoke about the time he missed with her during his illness.  This illness has a big impact on many lives.  Some interruptions are temporary, some are permanent.  All are meaningful.

What does the future look like?  How do we proceed?  It will take wisdom to find what is the best way to find the right path between the dangers of losing our lives and those of the people we love and people losing their livelihoods.  We need to start with those whom God has gifted with intelligence and hard work; we need to start with science over rumors and politics.  That is the only way we actually know what little we know.

The book of Proverbs in the Bible is about how to live.  It is not lofty ideas about philosophy, but rather practical principles for daily living.  Sometimes it knows our situation very accurately:

Hope delayed makes the heart sick; (Proverbs 13:12 CEB)

This is what many are finding these days when celebrations, trips, projects must be put off.  In other places Proverbs gives good advice on how to live:

Patience leads to abundant understanding, but impatience leads to stupid mistakes. (Proverbs 14:29 CEB)

The other day I was playing a CD that was my Mom’s, called The War Years, and right around “I’ll Be Seeing You in All the Old Familiar Places” I remembered a story from my family.  My mother bought a record of “White Christmas” but did not play it until my Dad returned from the war.  I realized that what the WWII generation experienced has a lesson for us.  They were away from family and friends and neighbors for a long time and delayed many of their plans and dreams to do something for the world that had to be done.  They waited for the right time to resume their lives.  Perhaps we, too, can be patient and make sacrifices to keep others well.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, help us, we pray, with patience and perseverance along our way in life.  Help us to be gracious in all things and to be calm and caring in life.  Grant us this virtue when we can’t see the path ahead or your plan for our days.  Help us to trust you, who holds all things, and renew in us the knowledge of your love for us.  Amen.