What do we do when the foundation is shaking? Thousands of Americans have already died from the coronavirus. Hundreds of thousands of people are sick from this virus around the globe. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, just last week. So what do we do when the foundation is shaking and busyness, self-medication, and entertainment are not enough? Today’s episode explores six ways to receive God's love in the time of coronavirus.
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Connect with me:
Thanks for listening!
What do we do when the foundation is shaking? Thousands of Americans have already died from the coronavirus. Hundreds of thousands of people are sick from this virus around the globe. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, just last week. So what do we do when the foundation is shaking and busyness, self-medication, and entertainment are not enough? Today’s episode explores six ways to receive God's love in the time of coronavirus.
Additional Resources:
Connect with me:
Thanks for listening!
Note: This transcript is generated using speech recognition software and does contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
1 (2s):
Hello. And welcome to season two of the love is stronger than fear podcast. I'm your host, Amy Julia Becker, and each week we're going to take a look at current events, AKA the Corona virus. And we're going to consider a small portion of Paul's letter to the Philippians. Paul wrote this letter under adverse circumstances, and he wrote about how to know joy, peace, hope, and love. Not by denying the hardship of the moment, but by knowing God in the midst of that hardship, I hope that reading the Bible in our current moment of uncertainty and turmoil will help us to turn away from fear and toward love.
1 (48s):
Thank you for joining me
2 (53s):
Here. We are at the end of March and what a month it has been. None of us predicted, perhaps we should have, but none of us predicted a month ago that at this point in our nation's history, we would be facing what some people are calling a hundred year event. We're looking at economic forecasts that are very similar to the great depression. We're looking at a pandemic around the globe that will at least be compared forever to the influenza pandemic of 1918.
2 (1m 24s):
We're looking at both a loss of life, a loss of jobs, a loss of health and a loss of security that comes along maybe once in every hundred years, not just once a decade or once in a generation, but once every hundred years, it's been a long, long time since we face something like this as a nation, and I'm not here to offer political commentary and I'm not here to offer economic advice. I'll tell some parenting stories and hopefully bring some wisdom or at least some humor into that.
2 (1m 56s):
But what I'm really here to do is to take a look at these ancient documents we have in the Bible and specifically this book of Philippians, which is a letter that the apostle Paul wrote to an early church a long time ago when they were in the midst of suffering and hardship to take a look at that and to say, what spiritual strength can we gain from going back to these scriptures? What can we do in order to develop a spiritual strength, to get us through these really hard times?
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And how can we offer that to other people? How can we live in love instead of fear? How can we live in hope in the midst of hardship? How can we face suffering with honesty, but also with love and hope. Those are the types of questions I'm asking for myself. And hopefully we're able to look together at what Paul has written to the Philippians and share those thoughts with one another. So that's why I'm here today is to talk about a few of the words that we have here in this ancient book, but to bring them into our present moment in such a way that they really equip us to live with love, instead of fear, I feel like I'm kind of living two stories right now.
2 (3m 14s):
I don't know if any of you feel this way. One are the stories that I'm reading about in the news and listening and seeing when I'm, uh, paying attention to NPR or watching the nightly news, or just looking at my various news feeds on my phone. And that's the news of mounting infections of a really rapidly escalating rate of people who have this virus and the people who are dying from this virus. I live about two hours outside of Manhattan, have many friends who live and work there. And that's the epicenter of this crisis right now.
2 (3m 47s):
And I can see that the calls to nine 11 in Manhattan are getting overwhelming and that the hospitals are starting to be overrun and it's scary and it's hard and there's not enough time and there's not enough equipment. And then there's this story that I'm living in my own house, where as I record this, I have three children in three different rooms in front of three different old computers, Chromebooks devices that we've put together in order for them to be connecting through zoom to classmates.
2 (4m 20s):
I've got three kids who are dealing with this social isolation in different ways. And I've got three kids who are in general doing fine as are we as a family. We're laughing, we're eating dinner together. We're living more simply. And there's some good in that. There's also some hardship in that and both that news story that I'm reading and looking at out there and this a very different domestic story that I'm living in this house, both of them right now are places of confusion, some frustration and of grief.
2 (5m 1s):
On Saturday night, one of my kids came to the dinner table and ended up just crying and crying and crying. And the tears were about a television show maybe, but I said, you know what? You know how sometimes I get mad at you. And later on, I apologize because really I was mad at myself or I was mad at your dad, but I took it out on you. I think that's, what's happening guys. We've got all these feelings and we're sad. And it's coming out in tears and weeping at the dinner table.
2 (5m 34s):
All of us have burst into tears or gotten angry without really knowing where that anger came from recently in my household. That is, I don't mean all of us across this nation. Although I imagine it's happening in more than just, um, the backer family. And in those times, again, there's just this question of what do we do with these feelings? What we do with this grief that everyone is experiencing. There was an article that kind of made the rounds last week from the Harvard business school.
2 (6m 6s):
And it said the uncomfortable feeling that everyone has right now, it's grief. And some of that is about these very real events that we know we've lost, right? We know we've lost sports seasons. We know we've lost. In some cases, people know already they've lost a chance to walk across the stage at graduation. I keep flipping the calendar and seeing things that were on the docket that, Oh, dinner with a friend that's not happening, or, Oh, that 40th birthday party for someone else that's not happening.
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Oh, that engagement party, I guess I had a lot of parties. I was thinking I'd be going to, but all these things that aren't happening, my kids are starting to realize that sports seasons aren't happening. And they're starting to realize that afterschool activities aren't happening. And so there's a low level of grief that comes with each of those realizations of those losses. But then what this business school article was also saying is that there's going to be a major human cost. Probably all of us know someone who's going to die.
2 (7m 9s):
Um, maybe multiple people who will die as a result of this virus. And so we are feeling anticipatory grief as a result of that. And so my question is not, can we deny the grief or avoid it? Cause we can't, but what spiritual resources can we access that will help us navigate both this small grief of loss of sports seasons and anticipated fun activities and the much deeper and wider grief of human lives, beloved human beings being lost to us.
2 (7m 44s):
That's the question we're looking at today, but first let me tell you a little story. So this past week was William, my son's first week of distance learning and he was really excited about it to begin. And then on his first day, although he thought he had a couple hours of classroom time, really, it was just a lot of short check-ins through zoom. So by 10 30 in the morning, he really had nothing else to do. They hadn't gotten very much homework yet. He hadn't really figured out all of the technology yet or his teachers hadn't.
2 (8m 17s):
So they just didn't have very much to do. And I had already said that from nine until three in our household is going to be schoolwork time where we are not just going on screens and mindlessly watching the great British bake off or whatever other reality baking show is exciting to my children at that moment. So 10 30 William is looking at four and a half hours where mom has said no screens. And he is not really thrilled with what awaits him in this day.
2 (8m 49s):
So we started to put together a list of what he puts at the top things he can do when he is bored out of his mind, his mother will not allow him to watch TV. And I said, what do you mean now? Here's the thing. But we got to dig deep right now. We got to dig deeper than the surface of entertainment and busy-ness. And if we do that, it's going to grow our souls because I realized I wasn't just talking to William. I'm talking to myself too. I'm talking to myself because every day, I don't know what time it is.
2 (9m 23s):
But at some point pretty early on in the day, I start thinking about whether or not I'm going to have a glass of wine tonight. And whether that one might become too, the two hasn't become three yet, but it will. If I'm not developing other resources to handle the low level of anxiety, perhaps the higher level of grief that will come. So again, I'm asking those questions, how do I dig deeper than entertainment? And self-medication how do I put my roots into something that will actually sustain me?
2 (9m 59s):
How do we all do that? Paul who wrote this book of the Philippians also wrote a letter to the Ephesians. We think it was Paul. It might've been one of Paul's disciples who wrote the letter to the Ephesians. And in it, he talks about being rooted and established in love. I love that image because it's the image of us as trees and the underneath the surface. What happens is our roots go down into soil. And what that image is is that the soil has God's love and God's love.
2 (10m 29s):
Therefore is what we're drawing from to do three things. This is what roots do roots anchor us. So in times of storms, as long as our roots are not too shallow, the roots of a tree go down, deep trees are anchored. Secondly roots are the conduits of nourishment, right? Roots, bring the nourishment from the soil, into the branches and allow growth to happen. And then finally, and this is maybe the coolest thing, roots connect under the surface roots, connect to one another, which is part of why they're also really good anchors.
2 (11m 3s):
So our roots anchor us, nourish us and connect us. And if we are anchored, if we are rooted and established in the love of God, then those roots will go deep. And those roots will connect with other people who also are rooted and established in the love of God. And they will hold us up when the storm comes and they will nourish us and allow us to grow. And they will make sure that we don't topple over when Jesus was teaching.
2 (11m 33s):
He used a somewhat similar image. When he compared a life, that's built on the word of God to a house that's built on a really sturdy foundation. And he said, you know what? You might have two houses. And they look kind of pretty much the same. And then a storm comes and one of the houses stands and the other one falls. What's the difference. And what Jesus says is the differences that one of those houses, the foundation was the rock, the word of God. And so it stood up in the storm and the other house was built on sinking sand.
2 (12m 8s):
And so when the storm came, it fell down. Some of us right now are feeling a little uncomfortable because it's like, yeah, I'm not sure my roots are deeply down into the earth of God's love. It feels like sinking sand right now. And here's what I want to say. If you feel like your roots are not in the right place or your house has been built on sinking sand, that's an invitation. That's the invitation. In fact, because we are not told by Jesus to go and build our own house on our own foundation, or to put our roots down into our own wellspring of hope and love and joy.
2 (12m 49s):
But rather we're invited into Jesus's house. We're invited into Jesus's tree, so to speak. We were invited to be in Christ and to be with him and in him, in the midst of our own fears and doubts and all the things that are hard right now, and to draw from that stability to draw from that security. And from that love, there's a Franciscan priest named Richard Rohr. He's pretty famous these days. So maybe you've heard of him and he's known in the contemplative prayer movement.
2 (13m 23s):
And I think he is someone who lives in like a Hermitage. So he lives literally like by himself, very simply. And he's a wonderful man. And he is someone who practices contemplative prayer. So he practices being silent and not praying with any words for 20 minutes, twice a day, maybe longer than that. So he's kind of this icon of contemplative prayer. And what's wonderful about him though, is that he says, you know, what, if the only way to know God is to be a hermit who prays contemplative only for 20 minutes, twice a day, or for more than that, then like maybe 0.1% of the world's population is ever going to have any contact with God.
2 (14m 5s):
He says, but if experiences of great love and experiences of great suffering are the way that we get to know who God is. Well, then the entire human population is going to have that chance. We will all experience in our lives. Great love and great suffering. And Richard Rohr says, those are the moments. Those are the opportunities to come face to face with our very real human limitations.
2 (14m 38s):
And to ask whether when we face that sinking sand, when we feel like we're toppling over in the storm, whether there is someone, something God love that will hold us, that will catch us, that will anchor us and root us for all the days and months and years to come. So that's the invitation I think in this time is for us to say, where am I rooted? What is my foundation?
2 (15m 8s):
And if I feel like I'm tipping over to ask that question of, is there a place where I can really connect where I can get anchored and rooted in the love of God? I'm about to read from this book of the Philippians we're in chapter one, I'm going to read verses 12 through 18, uh, from the new revised standard version. And we'll put the passage in the show notes. If you want to look it up, this is Paul writing, he's writing from prison. And the reason I'm talking about roots is because even though Paul doesn't mention them here, Paul is someone who had deep roots.
2 (15m 43s):
And what we're going to see is what happens, what the perspective is in the midst of suffering when you have deep roots. So this is what Paul writes about. Verse 12. I want you to know beloved that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers and sisters having been made confident than the Lord by my imprisonment dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear, some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from Goodwill, these proclaim Christ out of love, knowing that I've been put here for the defense of the gospel, the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but intending to increase my suffering and my imprisonment.
2 (16m 36s):
What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true. And in that I rejoice. So here we have this guy he's in prison and prison conditions. They're not great. Now. They were even worse than, and what he's writing about is how he's seeing God's good news. That's what gospel means is good news spreading because he's in prison, even though he's in prison.
2 (17m 7s):
So he's in prison. He's also, I will mention facing the prospect of death. There's a good chance. And he knows it that he's going to die because of being in prison. He is certain that he's going to suffer whether just from like not getting enough sleep and not getting enough food or from actual physical abuse, which we know that Paul underwent in a couple of different circumstances. What we see here is that Paul has put his roots down into the love of God. And it allows him to see God's loving activity, even in the midst of suffering and hardship.
2 (17m 41s):
The first little hint of this is just that he says, I want you to know beloved that what has happened to me, right? He's just, as he's just kind of casually referring to Philippians, he calls them beloved. They are dear to him and he wants them to know that. And he's eager to express that love. But then he says, and this is, I mean, kind of bizarre because he's like, this has actually been great that I'm in prison because now the gospel, the good news about Jesus has become known throughout the whole Imperial guard.
2 (18m 13s):
So what that means is I have gotten to share the love of Jesus with my captures. Paul is able not only to love the Philippians, which makes some sense, not only to know God's love for him, but actually even to bring that love to his captors. And then he goes on and he writes about these people who are preaching Christ from envy and rivalry. And he seems to be able to love them too. He's like, yeah, just no big deal. At least they're talking about Jesus.
2 (18m 44s):
That's good news. So he has a love for the Imperial guard, his love for his rivals, and he has love for his companions. And all of that comes out of being rooted in the love of God, himself and understanding God's love for him for Paul. So that's the question for us today? What would it take for us to be people who see with the eyes of love?
2 (19m 13s):
Not people who deny evil, who denies, suffering, who deny hardship, but people who are able to see God's love in and amongst even the worst things I want to see with those eyes. I want to live with that confidence. I want to live and be that type of person. And I think Paul gives us a demonstration of what this looks like in action. When love is the basis. For reality, I want to conclude today just by talking about what we can do to receive.
2 (19m 50s):
God's love to put our roots down into the soil of God's love. I've written about this before. And again, in the show notes, we'll make note of a blog post that I wrote a couple of weeks ago about receiving. God's love if you want to be able to reference this, but I'm just going to speak out. Uh, I've got six things here, spiritual practices that you can attempt that you can try to receive. God's love as the basis, because it's not until we receive God's love for ourselves and begin to see ourselves with the eyes of love that we'll be able to also see other people and our circumstances through those same eyes.
2 (20m 33s):
So how can you receive God's love the first way is to meditate on scripture. So to take passages, we read one last week in Philippians chapter one, talking about Paul's prayer that our love might overflow and more, but there are a couple other passages. Again, these will be in the show notes, but first Corinthians 13 is a very famous one. Ephesians chapter three, verses 14 through 21. First John chapter four. Those are all passages that deserve a lot of meditation and attention on God's love and just really taking the time to think and contemplate those passages.
2 (21m 14s):
The second way to receive God's love is to spend time with Jesus. And I know Jesus isn't walking on this earth anymore, but we have access to Jesus again through the Bible. And so looking at the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the stories where Jesus interacts with people in a loving way, that gives us a glimpse of how God wants to interact with us. So if you imagine yourself as one of the people in the stories where God, where Jesus is offering healing, offering teaching, offering care.
2 (21m 49s):
If you imagine yourself in that position, receiving that from Jesus, it can help you to receive God's love. And to that same point, we can use our spiritual imagination. And what I mean by that is literally imagining ourselves in front of God, as we are and sitting in God's lap, becoming a beloved child with God as the one who is offering a gaze and embrace and the care of a loving father to a child in need.
2 (22m 23s):
So you can use your spiritual imagination to enter into God's presence and receive that love fourth. You can try contemplative prayer. What I mentioned before with Richard Rohr, literally setting a timer, they recommend the people who do this. I am so not skilled or accomplished. I don't know if you can be accomplished at contemplative prayer, but if so, I am not. But the recommendation is 20 minutes. I very, very rarely have made it that long. So I try to set a timer for like 10 minutes and just to sit in God's presence and know that I'm loved for me.
2 (22m 60s):
I need a word or a phrase to repeat over and over again, because otherwise I get way too distracted. I think there are people who have brains that are much more suited to contemplative, prayer than mine, maybe. But nevertheless, contemplative prayer is a practice of coming into a really quiet, gentle space where all you know is the love of God fifth. This is a more active practice. You can let other people love you. We are the hands and feet of God here on the earth.
2 (23m 32s):
This is how God works through people. So when you let other people love you, you are receiving the love of God. So who wants to love you today? Who wants to give you a phone call or send you an encouraging who wants to care for you today? If you can receive that, you're receiving the love of God and you can note it as such. And then finally you can participate in the love of God, which is a part of receiving it. We get to be a part of God's love and the love comes in and it goes out.
2 (24m 6s):
And so when you also love other people, you will find a wellspring of love within you. You are being filled up again by God. So those are six ways right now, there are other ways to receive the love of God, certainly, but those are six ways right now that you might consider meditate on scripture, spend time with Jesus, use your spiritual imagination, practice, contemplative, prayer, receive love from other people and give love to other people.
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Those practices will help us to be putting our roots down deep into the soil of God's love, which I believe Paul had done. And what it allowed for him was even in the midst of prison, even in the midst of facing his own potential for suffering and death, he was able to see himself through the eyes of love. He was able to see his captors through the eyes of love, and he was able to live a life of love.
2 (25m 14s):
And then when we get to the end of this passage for him to say, and in that ivory, Joyce, he was able to live in love and joy in the face of great hardship. Next week, we're gonna look at Paul talking about suffering and how he faces suffering with again, love and joy without it being what I've heard of recently as toxic positivity and without it being denial. So that's where we're headed next week. But for this week, I just want to leave you with the encouragement to pick one thing that I've mentioned one way to let your roots grow more deeply into the love of God, so that they might
1 (25m 57s):
Nourish you, anchor you, connect you and sustain you to live a life. Not a fear, not of worry, not of stress, but a life of love, even in the midst of our present difficult situation. Thanks again for tuning in to the love is stronger than fear podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, you can find more resources at my website, Amy, Julia, becker.com.
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And if you found today's episode helpful, please share it with friends and take a minute to rate and review it wherever you find your podcasts. See you next week.