Crisis
/’krisis/:
- A time of intense difficulty, trouble or danger.
- A time when a difficult or important decision must be made.
- The turning point of a disease when an important change takes place, indicating either recovery or death.
In Glennon Doyle Melton’s book, she says, “You have been given the gift of crisis. As Kathleen Norris reminds us, the Greek root of the word crisis is “to sift” as in shake out the excesses and leave only what is important. That is what crises do. They shake things up until we are forced to hold on to only what matters most.”
“A sifting… to jostle, sift and sort things until only what was most vital would remain.”
Over the last few weeks, I can’t help but ponder the similarities I see between the current and my time with the World Race. The biggest difference is that I chose to be on the Race, I did not choose for COVID-19 to force me into a hotbox of growth.
But isn’t that life in a nutshell- being forced into growth you didn’t ask for?
One Similarity:
-You are stripped of many forms of coping mechanisms.
- Race: internet, mindless scrolling, friends/family back home, your bed, comfortable showers/toilets, access to food of your choice.
- COVID: friends/family, social outings, freedom to go anywhere you’d like, control of your schedule, normalcy in routine, etc. etc.
But all in all you reach a point in crisis, where you’re faced with a point where and important change takes place, indicating either recovery or death.
For a small portion of our world, this is actually your brutally honest physical reality: you’ve actually gotten COVID-19 and your body is either going to fight and recover, or it’s given up and succumbed to the virus.
But for many of us, the emotional/spiritual is more relevant. And in our time of crisis we are also faced with a crossroad, the major difference is that we have a choice. We are in the process of SIFTING.
Sifting priorities
coping mechanisms
friendships
emotional responses
Sifting daily activities
health habits
closets of junk
the list goes on…
We are faced with a time in history where for many of us* we are forced to press pause on the busy-ness of our lives, reorient, refocus and to reprioritize.
*I do recognize for many, this has created MORE stress, LESS time, MORE chaos, and I don’t want to sound ignorant or be insensitive to that, but this is more for the masses of us who are now ironically paralyzed by the gift of time.
So my prayer as we all SIFT that this would hold true: that only what is most VITAL will remain.
Something as messy as a global pandemic can also be a time for many to find spiritual and emotional recovery. But it’s a choice to press in, not turn away.
May we allow ourselves to truly feel the weight and grieve the ways this virus has changed our current realities. May we press into disappointment, acknowledge fear, sit down with confusion and wrestle rather than choose to numb, avoid, and deny.
Our hope is in a Father who is FAITHFUL, who is empathetic, who understands & I promise you He’s waiting to heal places (both past and current) in our lives, should we give him the time and space to do so.
