Clinging

Let’s be honest, the last couple weeks have evolved into so many unexpecteds!  Most of us have never seen circumstances like the ones we are navigating with this COVID-19 Pandemic.  Schools have been closed, many companies have allowed employees to work from home, and having dinner out now means carry out only.  The grocery stores cannot keep up with consumer demand…which is what fueled me nearly crying in the middle of my local Kroger store. 

It was Friday morning.  In true fashion, this is the day I visit the grocery to gather supplies for our next week of meals.  It has taken my husband and I some time to learn how to cook for only two. There was a time when dinner meant a 10 pound meatloaf or 30 enchiladas.  But this season finds us empty nesters and we don’t keep our pantry or freezer stocked to the brim. We plan meals week to week or sometimes day to day.  

I had visited several stores earlier this week with a beautiful friend of mine who needed to get some things. I had picked up a few items as well. At that time, the meat and bread were scarce but most other items were stocked.  Friday was 3-4 days later and most of the produce was gone! The bread had been ravaged, a couple pasta boxes remained and the frozen food cases were mostly bare.  

Fear has been running rampant throughout the news, social media and even from my sweet friends’ words.  Chaos is on the loose and cannot seem to be tamed. There is a heaviness in the atmosphere as we scramble to do damage control and attempt to govern conditions beyond our influence.  

These tears were provoked by a grieving of sorts.  An overwhelming sadness of all the things we place our trust in…that truly cannot be trusted.  We live in operation routine and mission self-sufficiency and the threat of those two things being challenged has us off the rails and grasping at random false security.  And in a hot second, with our own methods of certainty being threatened, we have turned to toilet tissue and groceries. Sounds silly doesn’t it? Almost absurd.  

If this week has taught us anything, let it be that we are clinging to an illusion of control that we absolutely do not have.  We have worn our titles and salaries like a badge of honor proudly for the world to see, trusting in our own abilities of self-sufficiency to be our assurance.  We have learned this week that no matter how excellent our performance and striving, events beyond our power can steal our jobs and incomes in the blink of an eye.  With the reality of our own performance not being a solid foundation, we have reached for other ways to make ourselves and our families “feel” secure. And during these times, the enemy has triggered a fear in us that has enticed us to dwell deeper in selfishness taking more than we need and grasping for any smidge of indemnity we can offer ourselves and our families.  

It’s taken me most of my life to learn that anything I can do in and of my “self” is not the answer to provision.  My jurisdiction over health, over finances, over so many things in life is so very limited. My surety can absolutely not rest in my own abilities given how flawed and fallible I am and given the only control I truly have is over myself and even that has borders.  

A piece of that partial control is choosing what I cling to, what I choose to be my foundation, my rock, my security.  Anything in and of this world is temporary including our health, our jobs, our income, our spouse, our family, our own efforts, our possessions (including toilet tissue and food).  It’s a bondage of sorts, a scheme of the enemy to deceive us and keep us from clinging to the One true Security.  

We have the absolute privilege of being able to cling to something larger than life, something bigger than our circumstances and bigger than ourselves.  We have His Word to cling to in times like this when our feelings are running rampant with panic and self absorption. We have the option of choosing His Truth.  We have a choice to cling to this life or know this is not forever, no matter what is currently happening.   

What are you clinging to?  Take some time to be still and scan your heart and your mind.  Ask God to reveal to you the things you have been clinging to that are not of Him.  Lord, help us with our unbelief.

Psalm 63:8 says, My soul clings to You, Oh my God, even as Your right hand supports me.