Sometimes the mind can play tricks on us. We can look at something and think we know what we see, when in reality, there’s something else just under the surface. We are uncomfortably aware that something isn’t quite right about what we are seeing, but because our eyes can’t focus on two things at once, it’s hard to shift perspective and see the image within the image.
A double-exposure photo is a good analogy. An image developed overtop a more prominent image. Until your mind discerns the difference, you feel a distraction but can’t put your finger on it. The more subtle the image, the harder to discern between the two.
Remember the Invisible Marker Pads you got as a kid from the Dime Store back in the ’80s? A pad filled with blank pages and empty spaces until you touched it with the invisible ink marker and a number or word magically appeared where there was nothing.
COVID is like that invisible ink.
On the surface, the virus is an invisible organism sweeping the globe and causing panic, fear and economic disruptions. But behind the scientific description of what it is and its direct impact (an organism that is of the SARS-CoV-2 strain and which infects humans causing illness and possible death) its indirect impact is not so noticeable, but nevertheless highly potent.
Covid is indirectly drawing lines which before were invisible or at least easily ignorable to most. Entitlement of the rich, the self-indulgent greed of the powerful, a distastful arrogance within the church, the privilege of class, and the ultimate disregard for the poor and underprivileged. It’s bringing to the surface hard lines of who should be first and who isn’t worthy to be first but should wait their turn because they don’t have 1. the status 2. the wealth 3. the importance 4. the right 5. the understanding 6. the education, and the list goes on and on.
This disease drills down into temperaments, egos, greed, entitlement, compassion, empathy, sacrifice and basic rights verses basic ethics. The nature of humankind is being tested down to an individual’s personality which is being drawn upon by the invisible ink of an unseen organism, exposing what is just below the surface. It’s like humankind has been cornered and there’s no easy way out.
Need to get the economy going again? Well then you don’t care about human life.
Need to care more for human life? Well then, you don’t care about the living, because what if I lose my job, lose my home, lose my car or have no money to feed my family?
Doesn’t everyone have the right to live?
Doesn’t every law abiding American have the right to be free?
Where do we draw all the lines? How do we draw them?
No worries…the invisible ink is doing it for us….
We humans pride ourselves on finding solutions to difficult problems, taking action and solving those problems effectively. In fact, there’s plenty of money to be made if you have the skill and knowledge to perform a task that others can’t. We are rewarded and take pride in that. But then we can get prideful – “well if I can’t do it, I’ll make sure no one else does either. If it’s solvable, I’ll be sure I’m the only one who solves it, even if I have to sacrifice morals or undercut the competition in an unethical way or hinder progress at the expense of the greater good – I’ll be first and only! Even if I have to destroy others.”
Then suddenly something comes along and begins exacting a price for this behavior. That price is death and no one knows how to address the issue. And the pride we have developed only makes the effort to stop it worse – it’s as if the virus grows and morphs on the food of pride, arrogance, cheating, competitiveness and indignant behavior – the only attributes with which we’ve learned to succeed and win are the same ones that are causing us to lose. So now what?
Humility is perhaps the key – but who on Earth cares to understand how to humble oneself? It’s a spiritual word with modern connotations of defeat, powerlessness and ignorance. Higher educational systems don’t teach this word in classrooms…wait, do they? Who cares about humility anyway – kick that weak word to the curb! We need strong powerful women and men to show the world who’s really boss, take over governments and positions of authority and be obstinate — no pansies! Humility is for pansies, that’s it.
When someone takes control of their own inner self, these are the actions s/he may take:
Humble: having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance.
Humility: a modest or low view of one’s own importance; humbleness.
Those who choose not to take control of themselves usual have power exerted over them by those who are in positions of power (and this can be within family units, not just society at large) and this is the action that gets exerted over them:
To be Humbled: lower (someone) in dignity or importance.
Humiliation: the action of humiliating someone or the state of being humiliated
So then, we can either humble ourselves in any given circumstance, or we can be humbled by someone (or something) else who has the authority to do so. And for someone who has the ultimate uncontested power to humble others without being humbled? Well, one must look no further than a being once called Lucifer to see that there truly is only One who holds that position. Thinking he was above God, Lucifer rose up against Him in pride and like lightening, fell from the heavens to the earth in disgrace. Bad day right there.
Jesus, who is God in the flesh was described as meek and mild. And don’t confuse the word meek with weak. So then, the One who is the meekest and mildest is the only One who has supreme authority to humble without being humbled. Interesting I would say; beautifully ironic in fact.
Let me ask this question: What do you think about a tiny invisible organism so fragile that washing your hands for a mere 20 seconds destroys it, yet it is destroying trillion dollar economies and undermining the sense of safety and wellbeing of all humankind – stalking them even into their private homes?
Pride most certainly comes before a fall. In scripture, God beseeches His followers to humble themselves and pray. Why do you think He does this? To show them who’s boss? To make them feel terrible about themselves? Most certainly not the case. Humbleness is the key to changing a current circumstance, whatever that circumstance may be.
In 2020, its a pandemic.
So in this pandemic, it appears our pride and arrogance is being humbled by something so small we can’t even see it. Is it slightly bothersome that the only apparent way to approach this is to humble oneself? Or would a raucous rebellion here on Earth against our fellow neighbors and those in authority work better, you know, to kill something that a little dish soap can kill?
God is waiting.
It’s not about killing the virus. It’s not about showing the government we have the right or the privilege or the strength to do as we please. It’s not about shaming others when we have no idea what they are really going through. Instead, it’s considering what someone else may need and that what they need is important too. It’s about humbling ourselves and before God and asking Him to intervene on behalf of all people because no human arrogance, willfulness, power or entitlement is going to work against such a tiny, fragile, invisible marker.
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Featured photo by Elijah Hiett