QUARANTINE BLOG # 22

April 21, 2020


Yesterday I closed with Lamentations 3:26, “It is good to wait quietly for the Lord to save.”

Spiritually, waiting for God is also the best course to follow.  How many times do we “take matters into our own hands” and end up with a result far worse than were we started?  When the Apostle Paul was giving his testimony in Jerusalem he was recounting his conversion experience, leading from the moment of the Damascus road experience until he was in the house of Ananias.  At least three days had passed between the first incident and the second, and then the word came to him, “And now why are you waiting?” (Acts 22:16).  Paul had been given direction to move.  Now was the time.  Not before.

To the Ephesians, Paul wrote, “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand, stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:13-17 emphasis mine).

Having done all to stand, stand.  When the word is given, move out.  If the word is not given, stand.  Wait quietly for the Lord.

I don’t know anything harder to do when following the Lord.

👉 Speaking of waiting, and not on a spiritual matter, but one purely personal, some of you have heard the story of the first Color TV I purchased not long after Bonnie and I were married.  For those of you who haven’t, you may share my agony.

Here in 2020 it is almost impossible to remember a time when televised images were all in black and white, but believe it or not, there was such a time.

And then networks, like NBC, began to tantalize, “The following program is brought to you in living color.”

A musical bit would be cued and the peacock would spread his tail feathers like a rainbow. (That was back to a time when a rainbow only meant God’s promise to never again destroy the world by a flood).

The peacock’s predecessors had shown the first color program, “Premier,” on June 25, 1951.  It was a one off broadcast, but then two days later, CBS began airing the first regularly scheduled color television series, a travel series, “The World Is Yours!”  Four cities received it, but by 1968, the time of my debacle, color television was everywhere.  Except in our rented apartment at 174 West Main Street, Frostburg, Maryland.  And I wanted one.

I read the ads.  I went to the stores.  Finally after showing Bonnie a gozillion of both, I found the perfect one, an Emerson TV – great reviews, great price – and I showed the ad to my bride.  She said, “Well! Go! Buy! It! Then!!”  So I did.  She claims she didn’t mean it.  She was being sarcastic, she maintains.

For the first year, I carried it back to the shop at least once a month, preceded by a loving “I told you so,” from Alvey and Dot Carter’s oldest daughter.  It was a hard lesson learned.

👉 Throughout these blogs, my position has remained unchanged – wait until the medical experts say it is safe to begin reopening the nation, then start.  But not until then.

Gov. Henry McMaster announced yesterday that South Carolina’s beaches may be opened at noon today, if the local mayors and city councils give the go-ahead.

He also announced that effective at 5 p.m. yesterday, non-essential businesses that were earlier restricted to curbside pick up or delivery may reopen.  They, and big box retailers, must abide by earlier announced regulations of a restricted number of people  per square foot allowed inside.  Executive Order No. 2020-21's limits are set at five customers per 1,000 square feet of retail space, or 20% of the occupancy limit as determined by the fire marshal, whichever is less.

Responding to a reporter’s question about the earlier announced White House guideline of 14 consecutive days of decreasing cases in order to reopen, Dr. Linda Bell, an epidemiologist for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, said South Carolina has had “ups and downs” and “no consistent decline.”

Gov. McMaster said, petulantly it seemed to me, those White House guidelines are “guidelines, not rules.”

And so South Carolina begins to reopen.  With 64 new coronavirus cases yesterday for a statewide total of 4,439.

👉 I’m going to give the keyboard for today’s closing piece to my pastor, Rev. Linda Birchall of St. Mark United Methodist Church.  During these quarantine days she has been sending a daily devotional to her flock as well as a video sermon on Sundays (and attending almost daily online Zoom video conferences, and webinars – bless her, Jesus!).

Today’s devotional begins with 1 Thessalonians 5:16-23 (New Revised Standard Version). 

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Linda says, “I took this photo from a campground near Seward, Alaska, where I stayed in 2005.

“The sunlight glimmering on the water always makes me think of hope and joy.

“Sometimes, it’s hard to be grateful…no doubt about it.  But as these words remind us, we are not called to be grateful FOR all our circumstances, but rather IN all our circumstances.  Even when times are tough, like now, look for the good: the good people, the good food, the good books, the good thoughts.  There is good around us, and we can be grateful for it, even when we are in the throes of a pandemic.”

Amen!

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