Leadership and attitude go hand in hand. Leaders should have a “can do” attitude, a “let’s get ‘er done” attitude, an “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” attitude. When a leader sets aside or loses his positive attitude, the organization, family, or team he leads will suffer. They will not achieve their goals. They will not enjoy unity. They will not survive very long. In one way or another, every TED Talk on leadership addresses the leader’s attitude.
At present, my attitude about COVID-19 stinks.
I’m angry. I can only go on the information we all have read or heard, and I’m pretty angry. I’m angry that China withheld material evidence and distributed misinformation. I’m angry that United States senators left an Intelligence Committee meeting held January 24 and sold stocks before the market lost one-third of its value. Look, I don’t know if the senators are guilty of insider training or not, and at this point, I don’t really care. I’m just angry that I could not sell my holdings before the market crashed. That’s just the beginning of the list of things that tick me off.
I’m irritated. My life has cadence, well, it used to have cadence. My routines give me daily direction and make life comfortable. In a recent phone conversation, I had to ask what day it was. I’m not losing my mind, but I have lost much of my way of life.
I’m sad. Our youngest child finished his college education this year. For the final time we planned to sit in the audience as a VerWay name was called and a diploma awarded. Like so many others, his senior year events and our enjoyment of them are gone, never to be recovered.
I’m confused. I don’t know who I am supposed to believe. Is this a legitimate pandemic that threatens the lives of untold millions or is it something far less? Is the cure worse than the illness? Is flattening the curve the only answer? I live in an age with more information than at any time in human history, and I cannot find a sentence of unquestioned truth.
I’m worried. We are living in a world of speculation. “If” and “when” are they bywords of every commentator, medical expert, and politician. But what if “if” doesn’t happen? When will “when” arrive? And when if and when show themselves, what will that mean?
I’m afraid. I’m fearful about finances and health and bad choices. We were not created to hide and isolate, and here we are hiding and isolating. Living against the Creator’s intentions has consequences. We can talk all we want how we will come out of this stronger than before, but there is no guarantee of such an outcome. There is no assurance that life will be better or even the same on the backside.
I’m embarrassed. I am a leader on many levels, and leader attitudes are supposed to be different than mine. I am a pastor who should embrace trust in the Lord and model hope in Christ. I am ashamed that these feelings reside in me.
And this is just the beginning of my sentiments. Maybe you share my thoughts; maybe you don’t.
In his grace, God gives us hope and help from his word. As I battle my thoughts, I turn my attention to 2 Corinthians 4. Paul tells us the life changing power of the gospel experienced by Christians resides in “jars of clay.” He means easily broken bodies and minds troubled by the realities of life.
His Corinthian readers were troubled in body and mind by circumstances beyond their control. To help them he writes,
Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)
Oh Lord,
I focus on what is seen. It’s why I’m angry, irritated, and afraid. I find it very difficult to focus on what is unseen. I often confuse the temporary and the eternal. I dwell on the former and do not rest on the latter. I wrongly think the temporary will provide what I need and satisfy me, and I hold too little value for the eternal that is incomparable.
More than grace to overcome my circumstances, I need grace to overcome myself. I do not want to give up. I want this renewal of my person day after day. Would you help me?
Christians, I suspect we will run the gamut of our emotions in the weeks or months to come, and this will not be the last of our experiences that exposes our broken humanity and the remnants of life before we were united with Christ. We will need to reset our thinking on a daily basis, homeschooling ourselves to value the eternal not the temporal, to focus on the unseen and not the seen.
Overcoming our emotions and thinking will not be easy. A TED Talk, a presidential press conference, or an act of congress may offer pain relief but will not kill the disease. To kill what is killing us, we need someone and something outside of this world. We need the eternal Son of God and the everlasting life he holds out to us. We need to focus on what is unseen not on what is seen.
May God grant us his grace.
As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.
Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision