Grace in a Pandemic

Let me get real with you. This whole world pandemic deal is a freaking mess. However, you’re in luck. I wrote the book on a freaking mess back in 2012, aptly titled, Your Life is a Freaking Mess. I would like to say that I am prophetic in my ability to foresee this moment in history, but that would be a lie. Face it people, this is not the first time that our life has been a freaking mess. I penned that epic when the world was in the last stages of a financial meltdown. It is a guidebook for people who have come to the end of their rope and discovered they haven’t left any slack to hang themselves. I offer some of my life antidotes as examples of how to navigate the shoals of despair. The big take away from the book is this: Breathe.

Fast forward eight years and here we sit again, hyper-ventilating. The only thing predictable in a freaking mess is that air seems to become a valuable commodity. (Don’t allow toilet paper to dominate your thoughts. Shit happens even in a freaking mess. Breathing, however, is the thing to watch.)

Isolation is creating within many the mental exercise of panic. Fear is the medium of exchange in everything you watch and listen to. Face masks project terror as people are being robbed of their sanity through hyper-sanitization. Conspiracies abound and multiply as days stretch into weeks with no hope of being able to venture into the public domain. We have binged anything worth binging and cleaned everything more times than we want to admit. And yet, there is this still small voice haunting our every moment of isolation, whispering to us, “My grace is sufficient.”

WTF! If you’re offended right now, then you need to screw your head on buttercup, you’re in a pandemic and no body – even the government – knows what the hell to do. They are making this up as they go! Yet, “My grace is sufficient.”

Listen to me for a moment. Breathe.

Do it again, breathe.

If you start to panic, breathe; if your heart starts to race, breathe; if you begin to allow your mind to run through every scenario of your fateful demise, breathe. Close your eyes and keep breathing.

I’m going to assume that that you have opened your eyes now and are willing to continue reading.

In the throes of a freaking mess, the most difficult thing to do is to find a footing which will sustain you throughout the tumult swirling about you. Bible verses don’t mean squat at moments like this simply because the pain – real, spit in your face, twist your nose pain, poke you in the eye pain – is more real than some type on a flimsy piece of parchment. And yet, somehow you keep breathing a grace which is sufficient. WTF is going on?

You need to understand something here. I am not like others who have given the message of grace from the perspective of being a sinner saved by grace. My grace message goes back much further than many want to profess. So, allow me, in our freaking mess, to show you what that still small voice is trying to get across to you.

“The kingdom God is within you.” Stop thinking that the kingdom is coming one day in the future from up there and out there, it is in you right now. Every king sits on a throne and proclaims His rule from that throne. God’s throne is described as a throne of grace. This means that every edict which is uttered from this throne is recognized as being a grace event or grace mandate. In a kingdom which abounds with everything, grace is sufficient. This grace has been sufficient long before the foundations of the world.

“I and the Father are one.” You are not any different from Jesus. You and the Father are one. There actually isn’t even a “you” as much as there is Him being as you. (Image and likeness, people. You are not in His fullness.) Whatever the Father says, as you, is spoken from the same throne of grace as if He spoke it directly.

“Son, you are ever with me and all I have is yours.” God cannot give you anything. So, quit asking for it! I know this doesn’t make sense, right? Consider this: For God to give you something, He would also have the ability to take it away. Love doesn’t take. You already have it. As long as God is, you have everything through the power of the grace of His kingdom.

There are those people who seriously believe that this entire mess is God’s reaction to our Adamic nature, or because of some sexual deviation, or because prayer is no longer in school, or because…yada, yada, yada. You can believe the mythic conjuring of these folks if you want to and the magical cantations they prescribe you follow three times a day until the next holy day. But all that work, genuflecting and purification will not dampen the whisper, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

The truth of this situation which the vast majority of people will never even attempt to decipher is found in their personal mess and just how grace is sufficient in what they face. Now that you’re faced with being at home, unable to go to work or any social functions, even limited in going to the grocery store, your mess is blooming all around you. Yet, “My grace is sufficient.” Do you know what this means? Breathe. There is a voice calling you, but you’ll only hear it between each breathe.

The million of years that this planet has existed and the hundred of thousands of years that humanity has traveled across it, there have been viruses. This one is simple the next in a long chain of evolving viruses. It will be demoted next season by another virus which, those who survive this go around, will have to face just like all the others before.

Regardless, then, now, or whatever follows, the response does not change. “My grace is sufficient.” There is no lack simply because, “My grace is sufficient.” There is nothing missing because, “My grace is sufficient.” All worries and concerns melt away because, “My grace is sufficient.” But what about…“My grace is sufficient.”

So, what is the correct response to this pandemic?

You: Breathe.

God: “My grace is sufficient.”

You: Breathe.

Repeat.

Now I know there will be many of you who will dismiss this as trivial because you don’t see how your freaking mess is going to be aided by the simple act of breathing. Look buttercup, you’ve screwed this up yourself through all the actions (and many nonactions) you took. Quit playing god for a moment and let God do what He has always been doing. Until you realize that the very act of breathing is acknowledging your dependence on Him, you are not going to understand a darn thing I’ve been trying to put before you. Breathe, just freaking breathe. And while you’re doing it, listen. Pay attention to the silence, the realm of God. Sure, you’ve got questions, concerns, fears – but shut up. Do you honestly believe that a God who is all powerful, ever present, and all knowing has no clue what a mess you’re in? Why do think He wants you to experience, “My grace is sufficient,” more than chalk it up to one more bible message you’ll file away and forget about in ten days?

So again, what is the correct response to this pandemic?

You: Breathe.

God: “My grace is sufficient.”

You: Breathe.

Repeat.