If you’re even halfway conscious in today’s world, you know almost everything there is to know about the coronavirus or COVID-19. It’s all over the news, social media, our children are talking about it- it’s simply everywhere. And not to say that it shouldn’t be. Everyone should be educated and “in the know” when it comes to this nasty virus, that is taking our nation by storm in a matter of days and weeks.
Being in the medical field, and having a Bachelors of Science in Nursing- all the information, the factual articles, data/charts, and predictive models intrigue me to say the least. This pandemic affects my profession, my colleagues, and mentors. To say I have been able to read these articles with ease, or look at these predictive models with a light heart, would be a lie straight from the devil.
Because of my medical background, I understand these models, charts, data, and articles on a deeper level. They represent more than just mere numbers to me- they represent patients’ lives. They represent patients I may have cared for previously. They represent people I may love, or I may know. They represent so much more than a number or a statistic.
I’ve studied them all. I’ve watched the numbers increase daily and even hourly. I’ve studied the predictive model sliding the mouse of my laptop from the bottom of the slope, up the side of the slope- reaching the top of the slope in sheer disbelief, and then back down the slope on the other side to all of this madness.
I’ve read the articles or posts of colleagues who are in the trenches fighting daily for us all. I see how exhausted they are. I see how anxious they are. I feel their anxiety, because I carry it too. I hear their cries- to the very depths of my soul- when they beg and plead with people to stay home. They beg them to stay still and let the virus die. They beg them as a plea for their own lives and the lives of their loved ones.
As they are begging and pleading, it’s not from a place of selfishness or laziness or condemnation, it comes from their experience. It comes from having watched patients die alone and being the only one in the room to hold their hand as they fade away. It comes from a place of having to care for a baby or child on the vent (which is the absolute worst in my opinion). It comes from a place of knowing how bad the uncertainty can be, but still showing up everyday to work. Medical personnel witness more things that many could never even fathom witnessing. They witness it together, fight it together, and that’s why the profession holds such a strong camaraderie.
Knowing that there are some very well educated people working all things COVID-19, they are some of the best of the best, so we use their data and models to predict what the future may hold so that we can be prepared. In my own studies, I have found myself putting a lot of faith into these numbers (patients), dates, and other predictions. I’ve felt myself become uneasy with the anxiousness of what the near future holds. I’ve felt myself get lost. and even a little paralyzed by fear, with how things may end up with this whole pandemic. And when I speak of fear, I never reference it lightly. It has paralyzed, consumed me, battered and bruised me. I’ve also had to remind myself that I’ve said and believed on many occasions as a nurse, “Medicine goes so far, and God does the rest!”
So in an attempt to clear my mind of the numbers, and the charts, and the predictions that look like a mountain that we’ve just started to climb, I went for a walk this evening. I started questioning myself. Not of my knowledge or how well I understand this whole situation, but of my faith. Deep in my spirit, a small voice has whispered for almost 2 weeks now- “oh, ye of little faith…”. When I allow fear to consume me, I feel faithless. I question everything about who I am and who I really depend upon in this life. As my mind and heart kept wandering, I couldn’t help but to compare the predictive model to a mountain. That’s exactly what it looks like. And a steep one at that! Then the spirit laid upon me the scripture Matthew 17:20, “He replied, because you have so little faith. I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘MOVE from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Wow!!! In that one scripture, God has given us all the power and authority to speak to such mountains in our lives, if only we have faith the size of a mustard seed. What would happen if we all spoke, even with our mustard-seed sized faith, to the mountain that we are all standing in front of together? What would happen? By chance, would it be cast into the sea?
Mark 11:22-24, “Have faith in God, Jesus answered. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea’ and does not doubt it in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
May we all speak to this mountain. May we all believe that it would cast into the sea by a profession of our faith, even if our faith is as small as a mustard seed. May we all be willing to call out to God, humble ourselves, pray and seek His face, turn away from our wicked ways, then maybe just maybe, God will hear us from heaven, forgive us of our sins, and heal our land. (Matthew 7:14).
Y’all, He’s got our attention. He has a lesson in all of this so big and so great if we will just seek Him out. Are you willing to speak to this mountain with me? Are you willing to repent and earnestly seek God’s face? Are you willing to help in the fight (physically and spiritually) to heal our land? Now is the time, It’s time to move mountains!!!!