20-22 Covid-19 Daily Reflections

I have decided to use this picture as the basis for my blog today. Some might say what it has nothing to do with Halloween? Well, it might not have anything to do with it, or it might address something about the spirit of this world. Some people are falling apart, and I can testify to that via what I have heard and witnessed in my daily activities as a corporate chaplain. Covid-19 has not helped that situation very much. I don't think that it is the root of the spirit of indifference that we have seen in our society. It might just underline it somehow. We live in a time when the spirit of fear has dominated the news. Some people would see nothing wrong in demonizing other people out of fear or out of hatred. The costume we wear to disguise this spirit has the image of sexual freedom and racial equality. Honestly, we have seen more hate and more inequality. We see more name callings than ever before. We see more condemnation toward people who happen to stand for their moral convicti...

I came across this picture on my Instagram a few days ago, and it makes me think about the nature of our silence. We have to encounter a lot of noise in our world, and silence is a rare experience. Our society is also afraid of silence because we see silence as rejection. People use the phrase "silence treatment" with a negative connotation. We cannot even have a moment of silence in the church because our worship is full of noise at times. Sometimes I wonder how we can hear God at all. Silence is an expression of our longing heart for God's presence. It cries out to God for what it doesn't understand. The silent heart is not angry. It desires to identify with God in dealing with the suffering of the world. It wants to listen to God's heart. Silence requires tremendous personal discipline because it has no room for self-justification. Silence is an expression of our obedient heart. It proclaims: "Speaks Oh Lord, your servant is listening". It...

Here are some of the key symptoms that have been caused by social distancing.  Anxiety Depression Anger Loneliness Feelings of frustration Boredom These indicators tell us that we are relational beings. When we feel disconnected from others, our emotional well-being is compromised. Being alone is not that healthy for us. Our minds, our hearts, and our bodies can be impacted negatively. Anxiety: We are worried about the future, about sickness and death, about not knowing what to do, where to go, and who to call.  R: We need to learn to receive every single day of our life as a gift. Tomorrow belongs to God, and we need to make the best of today. Some people can use our help. Depression: When we dwell in negative thoughts all day long, it is easy to be depressed.  R: We might want to reach out to someone we trust. Share our thoughts and feelings. Share our doubts and our hope. Anger: Being told what to do and how to behave makes us feel as if we are not in contr...

  Now is the time to take a deep breath and consider our priorities in life. Many of us are looking ahead to Christmas and not knowing how to plan or what to do. As the rate of infection continues to rise over the weekend, we begin to wonder how things are at Christmas time.  There is no need to worry about what we have no control over. I have decided that I need to let peoples, who are significant in my life, know that I appreciate their presence in my life. As I ponder about their friendships, I come to realize the faithfulness of God in my life. They are blessings to me in many ways.  As I started to do more thinking about my stress level, I am aware that most of my stress comes from not knowing what to do in some situations I encounter. I need to remind myself that I am not alone in my attempt to care for others. My prayer life has become unpredictably normal. It is like talking to God randomly and listening to Him while doing the most simple tasks.  Some of us h...

  I just like this picture. Many of us have felt like we live in some kind of prison for the last few months. Now the new measures against the spread of Covid-19 have been introduced. We have seen various responses, and many are negative. Some express the fear of a total collapse of our economy. Some talk about individual rights and freedom. Some even mention the whole notion of conspiracy and the so-called hoax. I have family members who suffered from contracting Covid-19, so it is no hoax to me. What do we see when we look at the future? Do we identify with the painter on the left who can only see the bars? Some of us can only see the restrictions and what we have lost. It is depressing from his perspective. There is no life and no color in how he views the world. He finishes his painting a lot sooner than the other one. When we have no hope, we have no desire and no capability to engage in what is going on. Our lives come to a standstill. There is no moving forward. ...

    One of my favourite services during Christmas time is the Candlelight Service. It is a meaningful time because families would come with their relatives from out of town. That gives us a sense of our community and its extension. The ritual of that service is how people light their candles. It is from one candle to another. The light slowly permeates the sanctuary. It gives participants a feeling of warmness even when it is cold outside. The light passes from one candle to another. Eventually, everyone's candle will lit up. It is a symbol of how a Christian life should be, to be the light that brings hope to the darkness surrounding it. What does that mean for us as we continue to deal with the various challenges of Covid-19? The best way for us to bring hope to our community is not to lose sight of the importance of human relationships. It is easy to be indifferent and frustrated as this pandemic drags on. Indifference is worse than hatred. It is like cancer that destroys t...

  We had our first snowstorm this week. It always creates havoc for some people because they didn't adjust their driving habits. As the snow falls, the number of cars gets off the road rises. The more it snows, the less we can see. The first snow is beautiful and pure, but it won't stay that way long. We now need to prepare ourselves mentally for another six months of winter.  Winter can be a drag if we are afraid of the cold weather. We just have to decide that it is part of life if we choose to live in Canada. We need to make the necessary adjustments accordingly. We either complain about the cold weather or enjoy the fact that we have four different seasons.  Being negative about life doesn't make things better. Many of us have learned that lesson during the time we had to be isolated. It is hard to be positive at times because we don't have the vision for what is ahead. Steadfastness helps to endure the loneliness of isolation. Being angry will make things worse....

  The stores seem to get ready for Christmas sooner this year. We saw Christmas trees and decoration displays in early August in Calgary. Maybe many of us have come restless in dealing with isolation and distancing from our friends and family. We need something to cheer ourselves up. Regardless of where we stand in our understanding of Christmas, it is still the time to be with family and friends. Many of us have appreciated the chance to be with our family more because we work from home. Some of us have struggled with not being able to see our aging parents. Travel restriction has kept us away from people who are dear to us. Perhaps we need an excuse to celebrate. Some people told me this week that it will be so good to have a party. We miss the relational aspect of life. In many ways, it is a booster or vitamin to our emotional well-being. Some have told me that they feel lethargic by being removed from people for a long time. Some find themselves withdrawing more and more. Celeb...

  I was informed yesterday by the young couple who considered having an abortion that they have changed their mind. When they told me about their plan of having an abortion, I didn't say much except asking a couple of questions. They promised that they would discuss them together. Apparently, they did. I am delighted. They are now looking for a place for his mother's quarantine after she arrives from Korea. They need her help when the second daughter is born in March 2021. Sometimes it is good for us to learn how to wait and give people some time to work through their moral dilemmas. He told me that one of the major factors for them to decide to keep the baby was how we (I and the sons of the business owner he works for) showed up at the hospital after the birth of their first child and were genuinely happy for them. He told me he would never forget that. God has His ways with people when we decide to wait for Him as well. It is the battle of choosing between the temporal and t...

   A lot is happening these days. We can feel the angst among many people. I can feel that within my immediate family as we learn that the border between the US and Canada is not going to be open any time soon. Some of my siblings have not been able to visit my dad for almost eight months. That has been unsettling for us. We have many questions, and we don't know how to trust the answers that the authority has given us. The more this pandemic goes on, the more we might need to trust God instead of the experts. What does that mean? Understanding our anxiety: it comes from our lack of control over our environment. We have less control whenever we have to be out and about these days. Some people get mad because they fail to understand what is going on with all of the new regulations. I had to wait "in line" in my car last week when I had to get some medical tests done. The young lady was excited and kept raising her voice whenever she needed to talk to someone. T...

    Perfectionism is a struggle that many business leaders have to work through in their daily activities. They have some ideas about what they are struggling with and yet finding it hard to overcome it. Some people would say that it is a double-edged sword because perfectionism does motivate us to raise our performance level and our work quality. Yet, it can create tremendous anxiety that brings about procrastination. Harvard Business Review mentions the following challenges in an article about how to manage our perfectionism. Let us have a look at them with my reflections. See the big picture: when we fail to see life beyond the confinement of our fear and interests, perfectionism will slow us down because of our pride. When we are able to see the big picture, our aim for excellence is about seeing the beauty of God in both successes and failures. We need to shift our mindset so that it is no longer about us but about God and how He is going to accomplish things through us. ...

  I did a memorial service this week for a friend whose wife died in June. As far as I can remember conversations I had with her before the beginning of Covis-19, she was a believer in God and had her understanding of where she will be when she died. The service was not really for her because there is absolutely nothing we could do for her. It is for those who are left behind. It was a time to remember and to celebrate. It was a time to grieve and to welcome God into the midst of our sorrow. One of her granddaughters asked me where her grandmother goes when she dies. A good question, I thought. What answer should I give to a 6-year-old kid? In John 14: 2, it says:  "My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?' Where does our comfort come from when we say "goodbye" to our loved one who departs this world? It will be terrible to think that the person stops existing altogether. I kno...

  As we have to deal with many changes in our life routines because of the Covid-19 pandemic, many of us start to experience different levels of stress. There are a variety of responses to stress from people. There are also many reasons for that. One of them is how we spend our effort and attention.  Don't pay too much attention to our politicians. Covid-19 is handful and exhausting enough. We don't need to add the following: the unpredictability of their behaviour, the lack of their ability to tell the truth, the uncertainty of their priorities, and the self-absorbed attitude of their self-importance to our daily stress. Don't pay too much attention to the enormous amount of conspiracies out there. I have no doubts that there are evil folks who would like to create instability around the world. However, the amount of "information" we receive daily is beyond helpful. It might be healthier to stick to what we really know and how we can make a difference. We hardl...

    Emotional abuse is more common than we are willing to acknowledge. Most of it, unfortunately, is initiated by people who are close to us. Maybe we are not able to face how we feel because we find ourselves living in denial as a way of coping. Sometimes we see it in the way husbands and wives relate to one another. Sometimes, it happens in family relationships, friendships, and dating relationships. What are some of the signs we might want to look for in emotional abuse? Patronizing: it is one of the worst ways to put someone down. It is degrading, and worst of all, sometimes it is claimed to be done out of love.  Dismissiveness: it attacks and undermines the worth of someone's else. It seems to communicate that your presence and existence don't matter to another person. Outburst: this is a common expression of emotional abuse. It comes with tirades and angry words. It attacks the well being of the receivers directly.  Unpredictability: abusers use this to control...

      Now is the time to pray for Peace in the world. It appears that we are heading to a global conflict as China prepares herself to take over Taiwan. Although it is not the first time we hear about such a threat, this time, however, it is more imminent than what we have seen in the past. The world has changed a lot since Covod-19, and no one seems to be able to do much to help with what happened in Hong Kong. It is not going to be a pretty world when this happens. Many people I know in Vietnam have also expressed the sentiment that China might do the same thing to Vietnam as well. Maybe China has to go to war against the rest of the world because she is afraid that she might have to face an internal one against herself. So how do we pray? We pray that the church in China will be able to sustain the persecution as her government is going to restrict the freedom of Christians there. Pray that the lessons the church learned through the years of the cultural revolution, wi...

    More and more people are reporting that they are suffering from brain fog, the symptom of having difficulties to think clearly. The more clinical description for that is cognitive impairment. Some people feel lethargic and find themselves not being able to do more than 2 hours of work daily. All signs seem to indicate to us that there is a significant rise in depression as the pandemic continues. The medical and scientific communities have begun to do some study about the impact of cognitive awareness among recovering Covid 19 patients. The early results seem to indicate that the coronavirus can cause some damage to the nervous system. There are some concerns about neuro-inflammation and damage to the protective coating of the nerve cell. I am looking forward to their final findings and conclusion. I then ask myself what I am supposed to do to offer any help to these folks. Brain fog affects our ability to relate and interact with other people and God. We cannot remember w...

    We have many reasons to go for a walk. We walk for personal exercise. We take a walk to clear our heads. Occasionally we walk with people because we enjoy their friendships. However, walking can mean many things in the English language, and not all of them are nice. We can be a walking disaster if we don't pay enough attention to where we are and what we are doing. It is not that hard to be one in this Covid-19 time. Today if we don't watch for the arrows on the floor of a grocery store, we can become a walking disaster in no time. As this pandemic continues, and now it appears to be the second wave, many people have been given walking papers from their work. It is not that uncommon for me to hear such news these days. When people get their walking papers, they sometimes feel as if they walk alone. How are we going to help who have been walking wounded because of this pandemic? Some of them have lost their loved ones. Others have to close down their businesses. People migh...

    Family brokenness happens more often than people are willing to acknowledge. Problems exist between people, and their adult children are more prevalent in my line of work than I prefer. I have heard parents who told me in private that they plan to take some of their children off their wills. Somehow the idea of cutting off adult children from personal inheritance has become a popular option. The resolutions for their problems seem to be impossible. The children have also appeared to commit an offense towards their parents as well. Can healing for these estrangements be possible? We need to realize that both sides will suffer tremendous losses. Parents might lose more emotionally because of the grandchildren. The most challenging aspect is to have the courage and the freedom to see the brokenness through the other person's eyes. Sometimes we might be stuck with the belief that we are in the right completely. Then we might as well say that we are without sin in these relatio...

  Finding a life long mate is supposed to be a normal process of human life. After all, God did say that it is not good for a man to be alone. In the past, parents would plan and match their children with potential future spouses. Sometimes they depend on other trusted friends or family members. We then entered the age of having the freedom and the opportunities to look for someone to date and eventually to marry. There are benefits and risks in both. Then comes the online dating services. It is a 2.4 billion business annually. Many young men and women I know have been using these services with various degrees of success. There seem to be no natural opportunity to be able to meet other people anymore. The lack of time and the increasing isolation and privacy in our life might be the culprit of this. I talked to some young people who live in condos downtown, and they have no ideas about who are the people who live on their floor. Going to a bar and a pub can be a disaster for some w...

    Many Americans will go and vote for their president, some governors, and some of the members of their two legislative houses on Nov 3 rd. They will make make a judgment by casting their votes. One person-one-vote is the nature of democracy. Sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn't. It depends on how people exercise their right to vote, and therefore to make a judgment. I have heard from a friend in Eastern Canada that many of her friends would vote again for our current PM because he "looks so cute". In John 7: 24, we are warned about that form of judgment: "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment." Appearance plays a critical role in our society. That is why many politicians hire consultants to help them with the improvement of theirs. They need to know when to dress formal and when not to. They need to know how to pick up babies and what comments they need to make while doing so. They have to learn how to use the proper talking p...

It has been a long and beautiful Fall for us in Calgary. We are delighted by the slowly changing colors and warm weather. So we took some time to prepare our garden for the winter this Thanksgiving weekend. It is fitting to give thanks to because we have one of the best crops this Covid-19 year.  One of the things we have to get our trees and plants ready for the winter is deep watering. Some people would say it is the holy grail of gardening. It is very much like getting ourselves prepared for this coming cold season during the threat of the second wave. In some parts of the country, businesses are closed gain as the infection rate increases. We might want to consider what it means to prepare ourselves spiritually as we face many new challenges in the coming months. What is Deep Spiritual Soaking of Our Soul? A) Become more and more aware of various spiritual malaise that will take place as we face uncertainties in life. Selfishness can be one of those as we are worrie...

  Many people are getting more grumpy these days. As various restrictions concerning Covid-19 continue, more and more folks are becoming restless. We are now on the Weekend of Thanksgiving in Canada, and many of us will not be able to have our family with us. I don't agree with the statement that our PM made last month when he claimed that "Thanksgiving is canceled". That is a statement of a thankless heart. We will celebrate this weekend with as thankfulness regardless of the virus. How are we going to that? A) Write notes to people whom we have not seen for a long time. Tell them that we miss them and how important they are in our lives. Tell them how thankful we are for being there for our family and us. Pray for their family and their safety. Thankfulness is a sign of growing and meaningful relationships. B) Give thanks by remembering how fortunate we are. Give generously this weekend to organizations that feed the homeless and the poor in our city. We might not need ...

  Listening to a father who shared with me the memories of his daughter was heart-wrenching. She was full of life and giving spirit. She was planning to become a nurse so that she could help people. It was a horrible automobile accident that took her away from her parents and two siblings. None of them is coping very well with grief. He was going through all kinds of emotions: a longing for her, anger, disbelief, sadness. "Where is God?" was the question he asked even though he would not call himself a believer. He goes to church because his wife is attending one. That is a fair question because we want to know how God stands with us in our suffering. My comfort in time of suffering is to believe that I am with God, and He is in me while I am suffering. There is no emotion or pain that He doesn't understand and embrace. It is ok to be angry at God in grieving. His wife has not wanted to see a counselor with him because she was afraid that someone would tell her that she ...