Is there something revealing about humanity from the pandemic?
It’s no secret that the global pandemic has had a significant effect on all of humanity. At the risk of overstating the obvious, we experience lives of repeated sanitation, decontamination, and viral filtration. Stores are routinely sprayed down as we hasten our attention like a startled deer to the sound of a small cough down the grocery aisle. This new way of life sent me to a place of serious reflection.
Between Sets
I was at the gym resting between sets and I began to look around. Several fellow gym members were spraying down equipment. The policy in the gym is to carry the provided disinfectant spray bottles along with a rag to wipe down any equipment you have used. At first glance this humored me. I had never confused any gym for a place of sanitation or cleanliness. Even before the pandemic I would have never eaten with my hands or even rubbed my eyes after any kind of activity at the gym. This was a place marked with the sweat and stench of physical exertion. That’s a gym.
With all of the sanitizing, masking, and wiping of surfaces, it seems as if we are just now realizing how dirty we really are.
As I sat and observed this cleaning routine, I had a realization. With all of the sanitizing, masking, and wiping of surfaces, it seems as if we are just now realizing how dirty we really are. Despite our knowledge of bacteria and viruses we never really altered our behaviors all that much before the covid outbreak. Now we are suddenly aware of who or what might transmit something harmful to our bodies. Then this really got me thinking. Could there potentially be a spiritual metaphor here?
With Closed Eyes
One of the most little used phrases in the English language and every day is moving closer and closer to extinction is the confession, “I was wrong.” Admitting our wrong might change how people look at us or tarnish the facade we portray on our various social networking accounts. In some cases we might veer into extreme levels of personal denial to tell ourselves just how great we are and how pure our actions can be. There's something about recognizing our wrongs that terrifies us and we prefer to sweep those wrongs under the rug. We are so dirty inside but we don’t want to see it.
Do we see the huge problem that lies within us and our desperate need to be made clean?
It took a pandemic to bring to light the awareness of disease and dirt that we experience everyday… and always have. Can we look a little deeper at this? Can we see the disease and dirt inside of each and every one of us? James 2:10 says “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” I don’t think any of us can live up to a perfect standard. We are all guilty as Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The question isn’t whether or not we are dirty. The question seems to be “Do we recognize our own dirt? Do we see the huge problem that lies within us and our desperate need to be made clean?” Only the saving grace through faith offered by Jesus through His death and resurrection can make us clean and keep us clean. He is the only answer for a dirty, contaminated heart.
Photo by Maksim Goncharenok from Pexels
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