I wrote this title in March, on the early onset of our world being changed by the “novel Coronovirus.” Information was limited and even then conspiracy theories were flying around.

Life turned strange very quickly! Our private school closed a week earlier than planned. Monday morning, a week before spring break, 20% of the students didn’t come to school because they were sick, having been around another student the day before. While it wasn’t COVID-19, it was kinda freaky how fast whatever-it-was-they-had spread. It certainly was a reminder that contagious illnesses are a part of our lives.

Within a short time, toilet paper disappeared off the shelves and we wondered what in the world was going on. Here we are, 6 weeks later and our supply (that I order in bulk) at the office is down to 6 rolls. The usual places I buy from like Staples or Quill, still don’t have it stocked to ship. However, they do have the big commercial rolls that most public restrooms use in schools, hospitals, theaters and convention centers and ….. Ahh, we eventually figured out why the smaller rolls were scarce. That and some hoarders sprinkled in for good measure.

The old “Does life imitating art or the other way around?” question comes up again. For the most part, the people I know personally were not thinking it was a Big Deal. Going online to nearly any source and you could find people who thought it was the end of the world. So I’m wondering, for people who watch action/thriller movies, do they look at this differently than those of us who don’t? In 2018, when I was planning to go to Italy, a local friend was quite concerned that I would travel to another country. Looking back at 2018, it looks completely harmless, right? And yet there he was, concerned that it wasn’t safe. I know we are impacted the media we watch, and I’m guessing those who have watched a movie about a pandemic, are thinking about every worst case scenario.

Laughter is good medicine and the memes and jokes that came out of this were certainly funny!

We thought we should save some for posterity.

People have been stressed/freaked out over so many things that never came to pass. Here’s a small one …. about 8 or 10 years ago rumor had it that rice was going to double or triple in price because of, well, I can’t remember why. Something was going to cause a rice shortage. And much longer ago than that, I remember when Proctor and Gamble was practically an evil corporation because that’s what we were told. Many years before the internet where we could find an argument for or against it. I think for every controversial issue out there, information can be found to support or negate it! Truth of what is happening currently is very, very gray and muddy.

I’m not even interested in debating what is and isn’t going on behind the scenes. I do think that we should be careful what we share on social media. Is there a reason that we like to share “sensational” stories? What good comes out of sharing something that might or might not be true? (At a minimum make sure it’s from a credible source.) I really don’t want to know about every kind of evil out there. I already know there is evil in this world and my call as a believer is not going to change.

I’m not saying we should be ignoring evil but I am saying we should not be focusing on it.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Philippians 4: 8 NASV

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” Matthew 10:16 NASV

…so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15 NASV

Go be salt and light.