#UnmuteYourself Day 5 - It Is What It Is
I read an article in The Atlantic today that made me openly weep. Elaine Godfrey opens “ Iowa Is What Happens When Government Does Nothing” like this:
Nick Klein knew the man wasn’t going to make it through the night. So the 31-year-old nurse at the University of Iowa ICU put on his gown, his gloves, his mask, and his face shield. He went into the patient’s room, held a phone to his ear, and tried hard not to cry while he listened to the man’s loved ones take turns saying goodbye. When they were finished, Klein put on some music, a muted melody like you might hear in an elevator. He pulled up a chair and took the man’s hand. For two hours that summer night, there were no sounds but soft piano and the gentle beep beep beep of the monitors. Klein thought about how he would feel if the person in the bed were his own father, and he squeezed his hand tighter. Around midnight, Klein watched as the man took one last, ragged breath and died.
The unimaginable heartbreak of that scene, for the patient, for their family, and for nurse Klein, who must do this over and over and over again because some of the nation’s leaders refuse to act to bring the pandemic in check, makes me cry. We know how to slow the spread. We know. So I have absolutely zero patience for the “It is what it is” crowd. The death toll is what it is, but it doesn’t have to be this way! We do have some control! We can save lives.
Psalm 89 is subtitled “Prayer for the Restoration of God’s Favor.” Verse 9 pretty much encapsulates that sentiment: “Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.” Surely, the psalmist writes, surely the suffering can’t go on much longer. Surely, the salvation of God’s people is just around the corner. I don’t know if nurse Klein is a praying man, but if I were him, I would be repeating something like this verse every minute of every day. Surely, a just and loving God would make it stop.
There’s a strain of Christianity that takes this too far. It says that if bad things are happening, like plagues and fires and a record number of hurricanes, it is because we humans are sinning too much and God is turning God’s wrath upon us to get us to reject sin. But I can’t see how an all-loving Creator could bear to see their children suffering so incredibly much, let alone to cause that.
That is to say, I don’t think God caused COVID-19 to happen, whether to punish us or to teach us a lesson about life. But I do believe that God can use the pandemic to teach us things. It’s a subtle difference, but important. If we are open to the moving of the spirit, we can see what those teachings might be: Care for the poor and sick, because their vulnerability to the pandemic makes everyone worse off. Be engaged in civic and civil society, so those chosen to lead us actually care about leading, about the people, and not about their next ladder rung to the top of their ambitions. Love one another, and show that love freely and continuously, because oh too easily that beloved friend or family member could be gone.
As we’re preparing for a return to “normal,” I hope we can also acknowledge how so much of that “normal” contributed to the mess we’re in. As Christ entered the world to radically alter the balance, so too can we think of ways to radically alter that status quo. It was what it was, but it didn't have to be that way. Love broke through, and that love changed the world. Love can do it again, if we let it.
Nick Klein knew the man wasn’t going to make it through the night. So the 31-year-old nurse at the University of Iowa ICU put on his gown, his gloves, his mask, and his face shield. He went into the patient’s room, held a phone to his ear, and tried hard not to cry while he listened to the man’s loved ones take turns saying goodbye. When they were finished, Klein put on some music, a muted melody like you might hear in an elevator. He pulled up a chair and took the man’s hand. For two hours that summer night, there were no sounds but soft piano and the gentle beep beep beep of the monitors. Klein thought about how he would feel if the person in the bed were his own father, and he squeezed his hand tighter. Around midnight, Klein watched as the man took one last, ragged breath and died.
The unimaginable heartbreak of that scene, for the patient, for their family, and for nurse Klein, who must do this over and over and over again because some of the nation’s leaders refuse to act to bring the pandemic in check, makes me cry. We know how to slow the spread. We know. So I have absolutely zero patience for the “It is what it is” crowd. The death toll is what it is, but it doesn’t have to be this way! We do have some control! We can save lives.
Psalm 89 is subtitled “Prayer for the Restoration of God’s Favor.” Verse 9 pretty much encapsulates that sentiment: “Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.” Surely, the psalmist writes, surely the suffering can’t go on much longer. Surely, the salvation of God’s people is just around the corner. I don’t know if nurse Klein is a praying man, but if I were him, I would be repeating something like this verse every minute of every day. Surely, a just and loving God would make it stop.
There’s a strain of Christianity that takes this too far. It says that if bad things are happening, like plagues and fires and a record number of hurricanes, it is because we humans are sinning too much and God is turning God’s wrath upon us to get us to reject sin. But I can’t see how an all-loving Creator could bear to see their children suffering so incredibly much, let alone to cause that.
That is to say, I don’t think God caused COVID-19 to happen, whether to punish us or to teach us a lesson about life. But I do believe that God can use the pandemic to teach us things. It’s a subtle difference, but important. If we are open to the moving of the spirit, we can see what those teachings might be: Care for the poor and sick, because their vulnerability to the pandemic makes everyone worse off. Be engaged in civic and civil society, so those chosen to lead us actually care about leading, about the people, and not about their next ladder rung to the top of their ambitions. Love one another, and show that love freely and continuously, because oh too easily that beloved friend or family member could be gone.
As we’re preparing for a return to “normal,” I hope we can also acknowledge how so much of that “normal” contributed to the mess we’re in. As Christ entered the world to radically alter the balance, so too can we think of ways to radically alter that status quo. It was what it was, but it didn't have to be that way. Love broke through, and that love changed the world. Love can do it again, if we let it.