I have to admit, I am not happy with politics and the huge politicization of covid in all its forms lately. Why is it that medical care is not being equally distributed, and improper care is happening from hospital to hospital, and county to county? The amount of bias that is happening in the national media is horrendous.
In church this past Sunday, we had a significant number of people out sick with Covid, while many others are unwilling to venture out and face the prospect of getting an illness. I long for a place of comfort and rest, without all the mess.
I was thinking about the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian who was martyred during WWII. He went through a season of suffering under the Nazi’s. He clearly had a good idea about handling suffering and living in messy times. True, he did not have to deal with covid, but he faced torture and denigration on a daily basis, as a prisoner of war. In his writing, he held very steady with his perspectives on God. He wrote “Those who follow Jesus’ commandment entirely, who let Jesus’ yoke rest on them without resistance, will find the burden they must bear to be light. In the gentle pressure of this yoke they will receive the strength to walk the right path without becoming weary.…Where will the call to discipleship lead those who follow it? What decisions and painful separations will it entail? We must take this question to him who alone knows the answer. Only Jesus Christ, who bids us follow him, knows where the path will lead. But we know that it will be a path full of mercy beyond measure. Discipleship is joy.”
It helps to follow Jesus and let Jesus’ yoke fall on us without resistance. Once we are in that position, life makes sense and the messy-ness fades away.
The focus of this thought points to Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. “
