Let Your Light Shine Day 15
With all vigilance guard your heart,
for in it are the sources of life. Survey the path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure. Proverbs 4: 23 & 26
Politicians have begun to describe our current situation as “a war against an invisible enemy.” The problem is, we already had “invisible enemies” prior to the coronavirus. The CDC reported that 2,685 people died of drug overdose in 2017 in my home state of New Jersey. As of April 3, 2020, only 646 people have died of the coronavirus in New Jersey. Even the loss of one life to a preventable or curable disease is too many! However, the tragic fact is, we had an “invisible enemy” even before COVID-19 hit our country. So many people were suffering with substance addiction, and many others died of suicide, all in quiet, shameful desperation. I applaud, and I am grateful for the governmental involvement to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus now. However, I firmly believe that this global disease is a manifestation of a global metaphysical, as well as physical malady. The staggering numbers of people who died each year of drug overdose and suicide was not warning enough. It took a global pandemic to slow us down enough to realize that as a society, we are not healthy.
The Proverb today warns us to “guard our hearts” with all “vigilance.” It implies that we need to protect our hearts like soldiers or police officers on patrol protect their posts. While life offers us so much beauty, we must also be wary that there is danger all around us that poses both physical and psychological threat. In the modern, information age, often the psychological threat is the more vicious invisible enemy. We have been ordered by our governments to “shelter-in-place” because of the physical threat of coronavirus. However, many of us needed a psychological “stay-at-home” order even before the virus, because of the intense emotional strain that information overload, and an overly fast-paced lifestyle had pressed upon us.
“Survey the path for your feet” warns the Proverb today. It is a wise reminder, that we must think before we act in any situation, both physically and emotionally. The popular thing to say these days is “stay safe and healthy”. We have finally realized that humanity is fragile and vulnerable to illness. However, we were fragile to the emotional pain caused by overwork and other social pressures prior to the virus. Unfortunately, it was not popular to support one another psychologically and emotionally, the same way it is to address this physical ailment now.
The proverb explains that when we are careful where we walk, both emotionally and physiologically, “all our ways will be sure.” In this case the word “sure” means “stable”. How many of us felt unstable before the pandemic forced us to slow down, and stay at home? I am definitely working way more hours in my “virtual” work world than I ever did when I had to commute to a physical location. However, I do not feel as overwhelmed with my work, because I have the luxury of doing it in the stable, secure location of my own home. Maybe that is what we all needed? Some more time at home to “guard our hearts”, and “survey the path of our feet” so that we could have a more stable way of being as we move into the future. I hope that as the world attempts to heal from the COVID-19 virus, we also grant ourselves the time and resources to heal from many other “invisible enemies” in our society.
“Holy Spirit, thank you for this time of silence so that we can learn how to guard our hearts and find the source of life. Thank you for helping us to survey our feet to find the safest and most stable way forward in this new world. Lord, heal the world both physically and emotionally. Bring us a bright new life at the end of this difficult journey. Amen.”