I watched the daily press conference from Governor Mike Dewine, Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton, and Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted yesterday. They announced that at 11:59 PM today, Ohio will be under a Stay at Home order and non-essential businesses will be closing. Dr. Acton described this time in Ohio as “going quiet.” She urged Ohioans to be in contact with a very small number of people. For us, it is three.
Our cars are parked at home and will only be used for essential shopping and trips to outdoor walking areas. My days are not quite as quiet now as they usually are. Dave is working from the dining room table, spending time on the phone, eating lunch with me, participating in a church board meeting via the internet. Kyle works in the basement, only coming up for brief breaks and to fix his lunch. We spend the evenings together and pray before going to bed, thanking God for his presence during the day and praying for those we love.
While Dave was on the conference call, I went for a walk around the block. It was quiet out there, with a few birds singing and one vehicle passing me, a Fed-Ex truck making deliveries in our neighborhood, driven by a person with whom I shared a smile and wave.
Today I’m sharing a portion of the Bible’s book of Lamentations. The prophet Jeremiah may have written Lamentations. It was addressed to God’s people while they were in exile from their homeland.
God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
He’s all I’ve got left.
God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
to the woman who diligently seeks.
It’s a good thing to quietly hope,
quietly hope for help from God.
It’s a good thing when you’re young
to stick it out through the hard times.
When life is heavy and hard to take,
go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions:
Wait for hope to appear.
Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face.
Why? Because the Master won’t ever
walk out and fail to return.
If he works severely, he also works tenderly.
His stockpiles of loyal love are immense.
He takes no pleasure in making life hard,
Let’s take a good look at the way we’re living
and reorder our lives under God.
Let’s lift our hearts and hands at one and the same time,
praying to God in heaven
Here is a bit of an article from Desiring God about his mercies being new every morning and how that relieves anxiety:
What does all this mean for today’s burdens? First, the very reality of these new mercies from God each morning means we shouldn’t be discouraged by barely making it through a day. Many days leave us broken, beat-up, and barely hoping. That’s okay. There was enough mercy for that day. There will be more in the morning.