QUARANTINE BLOG # 40

May 9, 2020

Today is Victory Day in Russia commemorating the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945. The German Instrument of Surrender was signed twice. An initial document was signed in Reims, France, on May 7, 1945 by Alfred Jodl, but the USSR demanded that a second, revised, instrument of surrender be signed in Berlin because some German troops considered the Reims instrument of surrender as a surrender to the Western Allies only, and fighting continued in the East.

A second surrender ceremony was organized in the outskirts of Berlin late on May 8, when it was already May 9 in Moscow due to the difference in time zones. The Soviet government announced the victory early on May 9 only after the signing ceremony in Berlin.

Michael, Matthew, and I were in Samara, Russia during the 50th anniversary of “Pobeda,” Victory Day.  I had taken a group of young people on a two week missionary trip, and the three of us stayed three weeks longer.  We rented a flat in the building below – if you count down three windows from the left hand side, you can see our living room window.  We were awakened early on the morning of May 9 by a parade passing down the street celebrating the end of the Great Patriotic War (the Russian designation for the Second World War) and the victory over the Nazis.

Two years earlier, I had gone to Samara at the end of May, and Bonnie joined me on July 3rd to work with a new congregation of believers there.  After that initial trip, I went back another 13 times, living in Samara for a total of two years, sharing in the Russian revival of Christianity.  The flat we rented for that first trip can be seen on the right hand side of the building below, the first balcony above the ground level shop.

The fuzzy places in both pictures are some kind of censorship.  Who knows?

👉  By now we know that the coronavirus will be with us for a rather long time. “Exactly how long remains to be seen,” says Dr. Marc Lipsitch, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health. “It’s going to be a matter of managing it over months to a couple of years. It’s not a matter of getting past the peak, as some people seem to believe.”

A single round of social distancing – closing schools and workplaces, limiting the sizes of gatherings, lockdowns of varying intensities and durations – will not be sufficient in the long term, he says.

Dr. Lipsitch concludes that (assuming ongoing mitigation measures, as we await a vaccine), “we must be prepared for at least another 18 to 24 months of significant Covid-19 activity, with hot spots popping up periodically in diverse geographic areas.”

The “new normal”?

👉  50 years ago yesterday, the Beatle’s 12th and last album was released. “Let It Be,” their final studio effort, is best remembered for its title track https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDYfEBY9NM4 and classic songs “Get Back,” and “The Long and Winding Road.” “Let It Be” was recorded prior to “Abbey Road,” but it was released afterward, which earns it the notation of their last official album.

Writing for Consequence of Sound, Laura Dzubay said, “It is a playful, poignant, and hopeful album for when we find ourselves in times of trouble.”

Like today.

👉 On this day in 1926, polar explorer Richard E. Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett claimed they flew over the North Pole. It would have been the first time an aircraft flew over the top of the world. The discovery in 1996 of the diary that Byrd had kept on his famous flight seemed to suggest that he and Bennett may have turned back 150 miles short of the pole because of an oil leak.

👉 Why are we still searching store shelves for toilet paper? Finding toilet paper and paper towels has become a little easier, but they are still far from plentiful and we all want to know why.

Eric Abercrombie of Georgia-Pacific, a toilet paper producer, says they were taken by surprise at the start of the pandemic. He says, “We’re making product as quick as we can, shipping it out fast as we can. And it’s just a matter of time of the supply catching up to the consumer's demand out there.”

If you are worried about your stash lasting until the shelves are full, a new website might be able to help determine how many rolls of toilet paper is enough for you. Go to www.howmuchtoiletpaper.com, enter how many rolls of toilet paper you have and how many times you visit the bathroom. Their calculator will tell you how much toilet paper you need to get through these uncertain times.

👉 One upside over these past several weeks is that we’ve had extra time to think and reflect. One downside over these past several weeks is that we’ve had extra time to think and reflect.

It is a colossal understatement to say that these are difficult times.  There are many things outside of our “normal” routine to distract us.  Becoming our children’s school teachers, trying to orchestrate activities to counter boredom because we are confined to our homes, going out into the world wearing a mask and carrying hand-sanitizer.  And that’s just the start of the list.

But these new distractions can be good because God can use these difficult moments. Through them, He can remind us of what He says in His Word. He can remind us that our greatest needs are not frantic schedules, racing back and forth during the times of the “old normal.” Our greatest need – my greatest need – is Jesus. In our place, He carried our every failure to the cross. And to assure us that He has kept His promise to cover us in His forgiveness, Jesus has risen from the dead.

So, when this “new normal” gives us extra time to think and reflect, let it come. If there’s a confrontation with a hard truth that cuts to the heart, that’s okay. It just reminds us all the more that real peace – and real life – is in Jesus Christ alone.

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