We are all intimately connected

It’s real… The world is in upheaval at the moment. Emotionally, we’re finding ourselves on this spectrum between disoriented/confused and panicked/terrified. This is a collective trauma - one like many of us have never experienced before.

I hope you’re doing okay... I pray that the stillness planted in you by the Creator makes itself consciously known amidst the turmoil. That being said, we both know that this isn’t the case with so many people suffering in palpable ways.

Here’s one thing (of many) that I’m pondering now…

In recent centuries, we’ve managed to separate ourselves and retreat into our own silos. Western individualism and the Scientific Revolution ushered in a lot of amazing things including medical advances, infrastructure improvements, and rampant innovation including the device and network that I’m writing and sending this message to you on right now.

We’ve reached this crescendo in our modern world where everyone is segmented into our own little worlds. We’re self-obsessed (I know that I so often am). We have so many ways to size ourselves up against others and measure our individual progress in a multitude of areas (sleep, finances, fitness, productivity, the list goes on and on). Managing our individual progress, maintaining our social status, and defending our cognitive biases is a full-time job!

But what this virus is showing me is that we’re all intimately connected. We’re all part of the body of Christ (even if you don’t identify as a Christian). I wish we could just see this naturally, but it seems to take a big, ominous, catastrophic pandemic and economic downturn sweeping across the globe for us to see in vivid color just how connected we truly are.

Our separation is an illusion.
Our connectedness is reality.
We’re seeing the truth of this now.

I pray that we make it through okay. I pray for the most vulnerable among us. And in the midst of this trauma, I pray that we can recognize how intimately connected we all are.

In this time, as we steadfastly maintain physical space to abate the spread of these pathogens, may God bring our inner space closer and closer together. May we walk through the world casting blessing after blessing on each other rather than perpetuating curses.

May we receive your eternal blessings now, God.
And may we accept and extend your blessings to all.

Grace & Godspeed,
Jonas