On Hope.

Well.

The world has gone a bit crazy over the past couple of weeks. For those living under a rock, or if you happen to be reading this in the future (hey future people!), coronavirus AKA Covid-19 is currently taking its toll worldwide.

I was going to write a post more around the facts and myths surrounding the virus - because there seems to be a fair bit of misinformation about - but I don't know if that's what people need right now. Rather, I think what people need is hope.

Because it's easy to laugh it off, and say that it's probably not going to affect you, and poke fun at the people panic-buying and post photos of toilet paper saying you'll sell it for a dollar a sheet. But, more and more, people are realising that this is going to affect them directly. If you don't get sick, people you know will. Probably most people you know. If you don't lose your job, people you know will. Some companies will close down, and some businesses will more or less cease to exist, as more and more restrictions are put in place.
Here in Australia at the moment, there's a ban on all outside gatherings of 500 or more people, and all indoor gatherings of 100 or more people; and international travel has been suspended. You also can't get into Australia any more if you're not a citizen/resident. Even interstate travel has slowed down. Aged care homes are limiting visitors. I think those are the main points.

It can feel very crushing. A lot is happening all at once, and even if you're someone who "likes change" and "goes with the flow", this isn't generally the change or flow you're talking about. It can feel like there's not any end to it, because it just keeps getting worse (even though there are already ideas about how long it might last - say six months or so).
Panic is easy. So is ignorance. Neither are good or helpful responses. We don't want people hoarding like crazy; but by the same token, we don't want people thinking it's not an issue and just going out and living their lives like normal as if nothing's wrong. There needs to be a happy medium of rational caution; where we hold both hope and comprehension together. On the hope side, we need to be looking to the future, and remembering that this isn't permanent. On the comprehension side, we need to be understanding the possible dangers, as well as the dangers already present.

I don't want to speak too much to the comprehension side of things at this time. Perhaps I will some other time. But I will speak to hope.
Hope comes from seeing good in the future. It's about looking positively forward, believing, trusting, in a future that is good. It can be specific, or it can be general. But it can also be easily blocked, if we have a short view.

To illustrate, I'll use an example from The Hobbit. If you haven't read it, this won't spoil anything in particular (though you should definitely go read it). There's one point where Bilbo and the dwarves are in the middle of this forest. And it's rather big, and they've been going for days, and they're rather lost. So they send Bilbo up one of the trees to get a better view, to see if he can see the edge of the forest. But when he gets up there, it looks like the forest continues to every horizon.
However, the narrator kindly tells us that they are in fact in a valley, a bowl of sorts, so it merely gives the illusion that it continues forever; were they to head in this or that direction for a while and repeat the experiment, they would have very different results. However, instead, the group loses hope. Because they don't have perspective. They're focusing on the immediate situation. (Which, considering what they've been through, is understandable, I will admit.)

Similarly, if we focus on the situation at hand, it's easy to lose hope. But if we shift our focus further afield, then we can retain that hope. And we can do that in a couple of different ways.
Firstly, we can remember that this is just a season. A strange and difficult season, yes, that we're not sure exactly how long will last; but everything we know says it won't last forever. That there will be an "other side", that we will get through it, one way or another. So we can focus on that, and on how we're going to make things better for when we do emerge out of this.
Or secondly, we can focus on something that doesn't change. In my experience, that's God. He might change what he does, or how we see him - but who he is is unchanging. He is life. He is love. He is light. He is truth. And he is hope, and joy, and peace. And that is an unshifting, firm foundation amidst the chaos - which means that, through anything, through all things, I can have hope. And, when I remember that, I do. I can forget, sometimes, and lose hope. But that isn't because he's changed - it's because I've changed my focus.

I'm not intending for this to be preachy. I just recognise that in this time, there are many people that are struggling. And I want to help.
We might be feeling alone - but we are going through this together, as the human race. This affects all of us (provided you don't happen to live in a bunker). And so we need to get through it together, though it might seem to be separating us. Together, we have hope. Together, we can make it. Let's support each other, let's help to keep each other hopeful. There is light at the end of this tunnel, and it's not just the train.
I'm still believing in a bright future. Perhaps more so than before. I hope that you will join me.