COVID Weary
This week my children went back to online learning and I am weary. It’s not the homeschooling that is exhausting, it’s the entirety of the situation Canada is in at this present moment. While we watch the US and other parts of the world reopen we, in Manitoba, are once more bound to our homes and hidden from our neighbors.
I keep seeing the word “languishing” pop up as an adjective for how we are all feeling,and I don’t think there could possibly be a more appropriate word. The New York Times says “Languishing is the neglected middle child of mental health. It’s the void between depression and flourishing — the absence of well-being. You don’t have symptoms of mental illness, but you’re not the picture of mental health either. You’re not functioning at full capacity. Languishing dulls your motivation, disrupts your ability to focus, and triples the odds that you’ll cut back on work.”
Yep. Nailed it.
To be honest, the restrictions for the first two waves of this pandemic didn’t bother me all that much. I am a homebody and introvert by nature, so if anything it just gave me permission to be more fully me - be that good or bad. But this wave?
I'm COVID weary. I’m done. I want my people back. I want my kid’s school back. I want to go to the movies. I want to browse the library. I want to wander around IKEA and eat meatballs. I want to have company over for dinner.
These are all, admittedly, very small problems in the big scheme of life. So small and insignificant, in fact, that I avoid talking to God about them. Why would he care if I want to go to the library when there are bombs being dropped and rampant disease?
But He does care.
The Bible tells us that God knows the number of every hair on our head (Matthew 10:30). He cares when a tiny Sparrow falls to the ground (Matthew 10:29). He clothes the lilies of the field in beautiful raiment, even though they will only last a moment (Matthew 6:30). He cares about the big issues in our lives as well as the seemingly small ones, because He loves us.
So, if you’re COVID weary like me, be encouraged that God cares about those feelings. He cares about your weariness. He cares about your loneliness. He cares about your fear and your frustration.
One day we will walk out into the light, head to the library, and breathe a deep sigh of relief that our new “normal” has begun. Until then, “continually encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “Today” and there is opportunity.” (Hebrews 3:13) In doing so, we are representing the beautiful bride of Christ, the Church, in each other’s lives.
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