Sheltering in place for a bad situation is a good thing.  What is an essential needs to be considered.  The current plague is forcing a reevaluation of what is basic, indispensable and necessary.  It has also provided current American culture a necessary pause in the political and social landscape of contempt.  True leadership takes care of people and deals with what is of significant importance.  Political parties are not essential.  They are not even mentioned in the Constitution.  In fact, James Madison in the Federalist Papers warned about dangerous factions sounding a lot like our current political parties.  We have also learned celebrities and their flimsy business are also not essential.  Even exorbitantly paid professional athletes and pro sports are not essential.  On a sadder note, it’s clear that amateur sports all the way down to youth teams are truly not essential.  The fruit of this discovery might be the blossoming of a new era of the sandlot games of past generations.  So many things we have taken so much pride is establishing, like our schools from universities to preschools are not essential in the light of community health.  In light the terrible nature of the disease as well as the disruption by the state and federal ordinances recommending sheltering in place combined with social distancing, there is still a great deal of good in the pause.

It is time each of us consider the question of “What really is essential?”  The wise among us consider the question diligently and often.  The pause from the contemptuous political debate grants us the time to consider the encouragement of the Talmud when it says, “The highest wisdom is kindness.”   Perhaps this pause in the action will cause us as a people to reconsider the explosion of non essentials contributing to the futile, absurd decadence of our culture.

The discussion of essential must include careful considerations of origins.  So much of understanding what confronts us in this life is answered by investing significant reflection on the origins of life.  If we are simple evolutionary products of a colossal, accidental big bang, then this whole plague is part of the Darwinian survival of the fit woven into the fabric of life.  It casts a dark and hopeless shadow on the significance of being an accidental human.  Do not look for meaning in that system.  Regardless of what we might have been told, there is none.  On the other hand, consider a GOD who is really there.  Imagine the report of the Scriptures to be true: mankind created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), full of intentional purpose and hope.  Apparently, the God of the Bible, in infinite wisdom and power, justice and goodness, established words delivered by prophets and other writers as the link between Heaven and Earth.  Numerous times writers are recorded as being told, “Write this down” (see Jeremiah 36:1-4).  In a New Testament setting, the Apostle Paul wrote from God, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. ” (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17).  If this a supernatural universe, then inspired words, preserved over time and illumined in our current setting are no problem.  Be careful of dismissing the truth claims of the Bible without reading and considering it carefully.  Paul wrote in another place, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).  Faith in the God who is there and has spoken in the Scriptures supplants fear.  Apparently, as Eugene Peterson wrote, “God has something to say, and he wants us to know what it is.” (Peterson, Run With the Horses, 125)  If God is real, then any conversation about what is essential must take that reality into consideration.  If God has spoken in the Scriptures, then what has been written and preserved is surely  significant to the discussion of essential.  From a Biblical perspective a plague, no matter how deadly, does not threaten or remove what is truly essential.  In fact, it can be used by the Lord  to heighten our awareness of what is truly essential and significantly human.

What we have before us is an open door to a grassroots revival.  Under these conditions some will complain of being swallowed up in boredom while exhausting themselves in mindless computer screen binges, but others will seize the venue to reflect deeply and resolve internally to truly live well.  In some healthy souls the current shelter in place focus on the essentials will give birth to a revived spirit of gratitude for life itself and love itself as essential gifts from God as revealed in the Scriptures.  A reduction in the trivial pursuit of the 24 hour news cycles, a shutting down of technology in favor of a short walk in the neighborhood and the re-embracing of more traditional values rooted in truth and faith will be the fruit of our grassroots revival.  Let kindness triumph over contempt.  Exert patience over antagonism.  We do not have time to wait for cultural leaders in politics, education or the media to lead this revival, it will shine from our homes and our hearts in our relentless pursuit of true truth and what it means to be human.

 

 

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

                                                                      Jesus Christ (Mark 12:28-31)