There is an interesting article in the latest edition of the AARP Magazine. By the way, in case you don't know, AARP stands for American Association of Retired Persons, and I keep insisting to them that I have not yet reached the age when I should belong to such an organization, but they keep insisting on sending me this magazine. Be that as it may, this article stood out to me as I was leafing through. Maybe you get this and noticed it, too.
The article is "5 Great Comebacks," and, as the title suggests, it tells five brief stories of people who had fallen on hard times, from financial loss, loss of a job and near-fatal automobile accident, who then came back.
The story that grabbed my attention is of a woman by the name of Jill Bolte Taylor, who was a scientist studying the brain at Harvard. She was only in her mid-30s when she developed a blood clot the size of a golf ball. It left her unable to speak, read, write, walk, or remember. She spent 8 years fighting her way back, but fight her way back she did, until she returned to full-time academic work. Among other notable achievements after her comeback, she gave a TED Talk (an influential video from an expert speaker) that went viral with 25 million views and counting. You can watch her talk, "My Stroke of Insight," on Youtube.
In every comeback story in this AARP article there is an element of grit and determination and optimism and faith. Each person had a resilience they didn't even know was there until the circumstances of their lives called it forth.
In the same way, I believe there is a comeback in store for each one of us. The effects of the coronavirus have us all down. We're afraid of getting sick, we're discouraged, we're disappointed, we're depressed. But this virus will one day be over, and our lives will be able to begin again.
It's not too early to believe in that new day that is coming. I think it's important for us to believe now that our comeback is on the way and in the works. We have to believe in our own resilience. We have to believe that God is working and that he wants what is best for us. We have to believe that we can trust God no matter what. Our lives may not return to precisely what they were before, it may be a new normal, but we will make a comeback.
The Lord tells the prophet in Isaiah 43:19, "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."
So, hang in there! Don't be frightened or discouraged. God will make a way. Our comeback is already beginning.
Grace and Hope to you,
Pastor Duane
