There aren’t clear answers to my questions. Another day of zoom calls, livestreams, and online schooling has left me with more questions than answers. What’s best for my kids? Are they learning? Are they on screens too much? What about my littlest…how is she handling everyone at home all the time and the lack of attention that we’re able to give to her because of the added responsibilities of school at home? How are my wife and I adjusting to this situation, both in our relationship with each other, with our kids, and with our friends? In a snap, my mind shifts to the students that I help to lead. Do they know we care about them? Do they feel loved? Should I be doing more to help them? Another flash, and I think about all of my friends who are working through this time as well. How are they doing? What do they need? Are they following Jesus well?

In a word…overload.
My mind feels like a pinball machine. Back and forth. Bouncing around. Stalls a bit, then takes off. I’m not even totally sure what my processing looks like these days, or if it even is a process, but I know it’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. And I know I have more questions than answers.

But one question burns brighter than the others. It keeps surfacing. It won’t go away.
How do I help people navigate this pandemic?

More specifically, how do I help my family, my church and my neighborhood work through this time and not go crazy.
What hits me the hardest is…I don’t know.

I don’t know the best way to help people navigate a pandemic, mainly because I don’t know the best way for me to navigate it. I’ve never experienced one before, and even in the midst of this one, there is so much information being tossed around that it is hard to sort through what is true and what is blown out of proportion or unnecessarily minimized. I want to resist the temptation to make blanket statements about the situation, as if my perspective is the definitive view on the subject. I doubt very much that any of us have a clear picture of what all is happening, despite the fact that we may convince ourselves that we know.

And that just might be the rub. We want to know. We want to have knowledge of the situation and how best to handle it because then that gives us the illusion of control. And if we have the illusion of control, then that makes us feel better about ourselves and our situation.

As a husband, father, and shepherd, I can’t help but think that there is a certain direction that the Spirit wants us to go during this pandemic. I confess that I don’t know exactly what that direction is, but I can’t help but wonder if part of my pinball processing is due to a dissatisfaction with the landscape that I currently see across my areas of influence.

While I believe that this is meant to draw us closer to God, I fear that we are so consumed with ourselves that we are missing the grace of God in the midst of this situation. Which brings me back to the question that keeps resurfacing with odd clarity…how do I help people navigate this pandemic?

What if we’re not supposed to know how best to handle it? What if we’re supposed to trust the One who does know? What if helping people navigate this pandemic looks more like pointing them to Jesus in raw, real ways rather than claiming to have knowledge about how best to live life right now? We’re all figuring this out as we go, but rest assured that God is not figuring this out as He goes. Not only is He in the middle of the storm with us, but He brought the storm and controls all that comes with it.

One thing is for certain–God wants us to know more about Himself as a result of this and to understand His character more than we did before. Is that where my focus has been? Or has it been on having the right answers and responding in the right ways?

Perhaps this post leaves you with more questions than answers, but I feel that this reality accurately portrays the situation in which we find ourselves right now. I don’t know what all God is doing through the coronavirus, but I do have some thoughts on how we can respond and will look to lay these out in future posts.