This past Saturday, as Denise and I checked out with the cashier at the grocery store (we will not make that mistake again), I thanked her for being on the front lines and serving us.
Knowing people are stressed and anxious I asked, "How are customers responding to you?" She looked at us and said, “Fifty percent are hard on me and difficult to deal with and fifty percent are encouraging, like you; it is tough.” It is a small reading on where folks are at.
In times like these it is challenging to have our needs met, which results in stress. You see it in the way people interact at the store so clearly. It is important to reframe our thoughts and focus on what we need to stay out of stress.
I believe we all have three similar needs. We need those in our lives:
Who will deliver hope, encouragement and wise perspective, which is real and timely.
Who can provide practical, tangible help. For example, delivering groceries, having a call with us, or in another way meeting a real need in a tangible way.
Who we call our community. People who we can share with, be listened to and also we listen to them. Even though we are physically isolated, we still are connected virtually and our community is a safe place. Medical specialists tell me, that when a person is able to share with another about their fears/anxieties, there is a hormone released in the brain which actually reduces stress, even when there are no given solutions.
As I have mentioned in the past, when we are through this pandemic, leaders will be remembered for how they cared for their people; they will be measured and evaluated, how they met these 3 needs.
My question, for you and myself, is this: How are we meeting these needs for ourselves and those around us? To the best of our abilities with the resources we are entrusted with?
This is Holy Week. Passover begins on Wednesday, April 8th at sundown and finishes at sundown on April 16th. A rabbi recently said, “The holiday is about liberation from oppression and that makes it all the more important to observe this year, when the physical, economic and social consequences of the pandemic are affecting us worldwide.”
We need liberation, especially to give us hope. This Easter Weekend is about what God did for us to give us hope.
Have a blessed Easter Weekend, which I suspect will be online.
Dr. Bruce Gordon
