This is a most difficult time for all. In many ways. This SNL continues from my message on isolation. Isolation, is a revealer. It reveals things about us, about other people, about relationships. Close confinement, can be a wonderful thing, if the people you are locked up with, get on very well. It can be an emotionally, physically and spiritually satisfying time. But on the other hand, being confined (quarantined, locked up) with someone you can’t get on with, exacerbates the problem you have with a person. It can also lead to trouble and difficulties. Have you heard of the expression- to make a mountain out of a mole hill? And that is what is happening with this loss of freedom and loss of liberty enforced on us by soldiers and police with guns to kill you (am sure they do not hold toys). So, it is a time when society is shutting you down. Locking you in. Where? Where or whom you want to get away from. But you can’t. You’re stuck. It is a time when in many families there is great tension. People want to get to work; some to earn; some to have their sanity restored, as they are stuck in being with people they do not want to be with in confinement. And little arguments, take on the size of massive mountains. Huge problems. Things that we used to barely think about, because we are locked up, cooped up, it is now all we have to think about, and it eats us up- and those little things, mole hills, become big arguments- mountains. Our mind replays and replays the same things, again and again. And we come up with the same answers, again and again. These are one of the results of boredom. And we become embittered. We feel the world is against us; we feel no one understands us. That is what we feel. But is it true? Often we do not know who the people we married are, until a crises comes in life. Normally, we don’t all have a crises at the same time, unless it’s a flood or a volcanic eruption, or today a virus. Normally, a crises reveals who our partners are, reveals who people are. The question becomes then, can we change the situation we are in? No. This is the cross we must bear. But it can be borne in different ways. I obeyed God, and I got a Nabal, a dripping roof. I obeyed God, and I got Job’s wife, a dripping roof. I disobeyed God, and got a Nabal. I disobeyed God, and got Job’s wife. Are these situations the same? Well, no. Whilst the situation may well seem the same, spouses being dripping roofs, they are not. One is a dripping roof, because God says so. I can cope with that. The other is a dripping roof, because I choose them. This is valid in all situations in life, One scenario gives me strength to cope with it; the other tells me- I can’t cope with that. The problems of life, are far easier to cope with, when there is no nagging in your mind, it’s because of your wrong choice,. When the problems of life come, and you are affected by it, but not the cause of it, this is easier to cope with as you know it is totally and unequivocally God’s profound will, received and accepted, via your profound obedience. This is a way in which we can help ourselves de-stress. By not replaying things over and over in our mind; but accept the situation. We cannot, for the most part, change it. But always, there is not the nagging feeling- Oh…why did I choose him/her. You did. Either the right way or the wrong way. You did. So, stop replaying it in your mind- Any regrets? Yeah…one- the dripping roof. That is not good, or healthy, for your emotion. So, accept it. Or do something about it. But stop whining and complaining. For the single ones- make sure you choose your locked up, cooped up, quarantine partner with great care. And make sure you choose it the right way- for then you can say- this is my cross, and I must bear it. It’s from God. Any regrets? No. Any hardships? Yes. But my partner came from God. And he only does it the right way. Now you have experienced quarantine; choose wisely whom you are locked up with. Any doubts? Don’t. For the rest, carry your cross.
MCC_Admin