It took an illness to still us

It took an illness to still us

It took an illness to still us

It took an illness to still us.
A virus to turn “I” to “us”.
A lack of immunity to turn to community.
An unknown cause to make us pause.
A pandemic to see our sin is systemic.
A death toll to see we don’t have control.

When life goes on, as we know that it must,
Let’s take a good long look at in what we trust.
Busyness leading to success, we believed in,
But it turns out that crown can be deceiving.
When tempted to fall back into the trap of the frenetic,
Let’s remember the lessons from a pandemic:

Truth telling is the only way to live.
It turns out, there’s always something to give.
There’s a lot to be done to achieve true justice,
And it’s up to the healthy to help the weakest among us.
Even small sacrifices result in life or death.
It’s important to stop. Listen. Take a breath.
It’s in the stillness we hear God’s soft voice,
And though we’re not in control, we always have a choice.

When our culture wakes up, yelling “Buy! Work! Get!”
Let’s look at it quietly and firmly remind it:

“It took an illness to still us once before”
.
.
.
“But no more.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hannah J. Cameron
3.19.20