::lent - the perfect time for coronavirus::

Photo credit: Tanner Olsen (@writtentospeak)

"If I die at the hands of a perfect woman, then that's how I go", a real quote from a good friend.

What makes my friend ready to die at the hand of perfection? What quality about it makes us do anything to attain it? We are constantly chasing perfection whether it's in our careers, parenting, schoolwork, relationships, or in the million daily tasks that make up the mosaic of our lives. This hunger for perfection consumes some of us, myself included (read more: The Standard of Never Enough). Yet, I dare to say that Lent is the "perfect" time for Coronavirus because we are in a season of lament, grief, and facing our mortality. I'm not saying that Coronavirus is a good thing or that I'm glad it's happening. Trust me, I'm starting to go crazy sheltering in place in my house and I'm an introvert, albeit a social one. But since Coronavirus has come, it seems fitting it's occurring now with the supposed "peak" being during Passover as we are praying that the plague will pass over us and our loved ones.


If you're unfamiliar with Lent, it is the liturgical season of preparation for Easter in which we are lamenting, fasting, and praying. It's marked by the color purple because  the color is associated with mourning and therefore with the pain and suffering of crucifixion but also because it's associated with royalty and we are anticipating Christ's current and coming kingship. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, a day where you see people with weird grey streaks on their foreheads that may or may not resemble a cross. The words, "Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return" are spoken over every parishioner as they are marked with ashes; a symbol of what this pandemic is bringing to the forefront of our minds. We are but dust and we will eventually die and our physical bodies will return to dust. Lent and Coronavirus are simultaneously reminding us of our mortality, a fact we tend to avoid. We may not perish from Coronavirus but if not from that, then from something else someday. We are frail creatures though we like to believe we are invincible. We can be taken down by something as tiny as a virus, something we cannot even see. Perhaps that is what frightens us the most. It is beyond our control. But we can cling to His Sovereignty, His rule and reign that is beyond us. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are greater than ours (Isaiah 55:9).

Photo credit: Tanner Olsen (@writtentospeak)

Lent is a season of grief and lament. Is that not what we are all doing in regards to Coronavirus? We are lamenting the loss of human lives, cancelled events, things unfinished, relationships at a distance, not being able to meet together, and so much more. Jesus knows our broken-heartedness, anger, and loneliness. He wept at Lazarus' grave even while knowing He would shortly raise Lazarus from the dead because He was fully human and lamented as such. Christ weeps with each of us over the sinfulness and sickness of our world. Your tears are falling alongside His own.

This season also calls us to take a hard look at our own sin and darkness. We fast and pray as a reminder to draw closer to God and for Him to fill the voids we usually try to satisfy with other things. Coronavirus has opened up other voids in our lives. We no longer can attend church, meet with friends, shop casually, be in our workplaces, or go to school, all the normal things that fill our busy lives. Now, we have free time, empty spaces, vacant places. How are we trying to fill them? To what are we turning to for comfort and escape? These voids are worth mourning over but they are not worth despairing about. The perfect God-Man died one of the most torturous deaths that we may hope rather than despair. His perfection enables us to live our imperfect lives without fear of retribution because He already paid the price.

While Lent may be the "perfect" time for Coronavirus, this does not mean I want it to continue anymore than I want it to be Lent forever. It cannot be always Lent and never Easter (apologies to C.S. Lewis). Easter is coming and it's going to look different. If you've read my past Lent/Easter posts, you know how much I love Holy Week at Church of the Rez and therefore imagine how it's breaking my heart that we can't celebrate like usual this year. But that does not negate the resurrection of Christ. He has conquered death, our greatest enemy. We need no longer fear it. He has risen from the dead therefore we have hope. We have hope for today and tomorrow and the day after that. We have reason to live and to keep going through difficult moments. It's not about us. It's about Him and His kingdom. Coronavirus may be for a time, a dark and challenging time, but God and His deep, abiding love is forever. Can you see the light of the resurrection? I can't promise that everything will be okay by Easter Sunday but I can promise His hope and incredible joy will celebrated and proclaimed. Our world needs the hope, joy, and peace that only comes through our risen Lord all the more in the coming days, weeks, and months. In the mean time, we cry out, kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy upon us and our world because we know how much You love us and we hold onto hope.