Pause
I pause, feeling helpless as an individual in a global pandemic, wishing I could make a difference.
I wasn’t your typical parent and sports wasn’t my thing. Like many, I supported my children in their endeavors, encouraged them, and set guidelines to create a positive atmosphere. However, I was one who stood on the outskirts observing. Quietly cheering them on, rather than shouting out my praises or hovering in a state of ready to help. I was timid, perhaps, but my rationale was to urge them to step out and tackle what they wanted, greatly on their own.
I sat in the sunshine as it streamed through my kitchen window this morning. In the quiet solace of a relatively new empty nest, I contemplated the tragedy our world is presently experiencing. I tried to put a description to what I’m witnessing and feeling while we, as a world, pause together. When this Covid-19 epidemic was first rearing its ugly head, cities and countries were demanding people isolate. I’d felt that stopping normal activity was merely prolonging the inevitable. In the meantime, it was destroying the financial security and livelihoods of far more lives than this virus would ultimately take.
Challenging Times
As many of us, I’ve observed and formed opinions only to have those beliefs mutate. With each wave of new reality that ebbs and flows, consumes and yet leaves us hanging, my thoughts change. In a world blessed with the benefit of quick results, we’re being challenged greatly. We’re expected to hunker down and wait for the worst, not knowing how devastating it will be. Though trying to be positive, we’re completely aware of how vulnerable we truly are. We’re not in control. We talk as if life is normal, plan for tomorrow as if it’ll be the same as yesterday, oblivious to what’s coming. Yet we’re keenly attentive at the same time.
My eyes settled on the unnerving calm outside my window when a vivid memory flooded my mind. A hush had fallen over the field, a quiet that beat with the same heart of today’s eeriness. It’d been a cool fall day and I was attending our high school’s soccer game to support my youngest in his sports interests. He’d been active on and off the field, a great aid to his team and coach. I watched from my perch on the hillside where I’d been quietly cheering from the outskirts, more distant than most parents. It was the perfect location to be a witness. The whole field of boys, both teams in a wave of solemn solidarity, took a knee. Someone was down.
We Are Taking A Knee
I’ve grumbled that life should go on and that this virus will and should run its course. I’ve felt the economic hit to the world as we’re required to pause seems senseless. But all in a moment, with this memory offering revelation, I understood. We who are not on the front lines, who are not critically ill, who are not treating the sick and dying, who are not hurriedly trying to create a way to accommodate anticipated needs, we who are not putting our lives in danger to try to save some while witnessing the loss of many, we are taking a knee. This is serious. The risks are great to those people on the front-lines, the hurt as well as the helpers. It’s important that we pause to offer the chance of some sort of success to those fighting this battle.
The young player was helped up from the ground. Both teams in unison rose from their knees and applauded as he was loaded on the school’s John Deere Gator and taken off the field. Tears filled my eyes at the touching scene. Opponents and teammates alike were united as they had taken a knee and paused, unable to help, but quietly allowing those who could to do their jobs.
A Relevant Comparison
Based on an October 14, 2014 article posted on Forbes’ website “Should Players Be Required to ‘Take A Knee’ When A Fellow Competitor Gets Injured” written by Bob Cook, I see the relevant comparison. “Taking a knee as a sign of respect for an injured player isn’t just something for football. … It’s a sign of respect and concern when someone is hurt, but more than that putting players in that position means they’re not moving, chattering, or doing anything else than could look disrespectful. It also sends a signal to the stands that the injury is serious, and everyone should be concerned.”
Pause for the Pandemic
Covid-19 was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020 by WHO (World Health Organization). Its overall impact to the world’s population right now is serious. We should be concerned. Not only is our senior population threatened, based on today’s White House press conference, millennials, the future of the world, are becoming critically ill as well.
We’re settling into a new, quickly-changing reality of which we’re not in control, and accepting isolation, pausing from activity, may allow the front-line war to be more manageable and the next generation to live on. We are those soccer players. Perhaps once opponents in opinion, political party, or religious beliefs, we are now united as a world. If nothing else, the rapid spread of Covid-19 throughout the earth shows how intimately connected we really are as a people. Let’s spread support and kindness just as rapidly. Take a knee. Pause for the pandemic. Make a difference.
God’s peace to you,
Rebecca
“Being idle and allowing God full control seems too awkward, perhaps even sinful.” If this describes your struggle as life presently feels out of control, click here for my video message proclaiming that Freedom Is Yours!